Marshfield Clinic Rolls Out Virtual Mental Health Counseling Program

In many of the small communities served by Marshfield Clinic Health System, the nearest licensed therapist can be a ninety-minute drive away, if one is taking new patients at all. A newly expanded virtual counseling program is intended to close that distance, letting patients schedule therapy sessions from a laptop or clinic exam room rather than waiting months for an in-person opening.

The initiative pairs patients with licensed clinical social workers and psychologists who can be based anywhere within the health system's service area, effectively pooling a regional workforce that has historically been concentrated in larger towns like Marshfield, Wausau, and Eau Claire. Smaller clinics in counties such as Taylor, Clark, and Langlade now have access to specialists who would otherwise be unavailable locally.

Addressing a Statewide Shortage

Wisconsin has one of the more uneven distributions of mental health providers in the Midwest, with several rural counties reporting fewer than one psychiatrist per 20,000 residents. A behavioral health program manager at Marshfield Clinic said the shortage has only grown more acute since the pandemic, as demand for counseling services rose faster than the pipeline of new clinicians entering the field.

"We were seeing patients wait eight to twelve weeks just for an intake appointment," the program manager said. "Virtual scheduling doesn't solve the underlying workforce problem, but it lets us use the therapists we do have far more efficiently."

Patients enrolled in the program can choose between scheduled video sessions and, in some cases, secure messaging check-ins between full appointments. Clinic staff say the flexibility has been particularly useful for younger patients and for adults balancing shift work, who often struggled to make traditional daytime appointment slots.

Reducing Stigma Through Familiar Settings

For some patients, being seen walking into a mental health clinic in a small town carries a stigma that keeps them from seeking care at all. Virtual visits conducted from a private room at a familiar primary care clinic, or from home, can lower that barrier considerably, according to a licensed counselor involved in the rollout.

"A lot of our patients tell us it feels less exposed," the counselor said. "They're coming in for what looks like a routine appointment, and that privacy matters to them."

Integrating Behavioral Health Into Primary Care

The virtual counseling expansion is part of a broader push at Marshfield Clinic to weave behavioral health screening into routine primary care visits. Physicians are increasingly asking patients standardized depression and anxiety screening questions during annual physicals, with a warm handoff to the virtual counseling team when scores indicate a need for follow-up.

Early data shared internally by the health system suggests that patients referred directly from a primary care visit are more likely to complete an initial counseling appointment than those referred through traditional channels, a pattern clinic leaders attribute to reduced friction and immediate scheduling support from front-desk staff.

Looking Ahead

Marshfield Clinic officials say they intend to expand the virtual program to include group therapy sessions later this year, targeting conditions like grief and substance use recovery where peer support has shown particular benefit. They are also exploring partnerships with local school districts to extend virtual counseling access to adolescents, a population that has seen rising rates of anxiety and depression diagnoses statewide.

Whether virtual care can meaningfully close Wisconsin's mental health workforce gap remains an open question, but for patients in the state's more remote counties, the program offers something that was often unavailable before: a real appointment, on a real calendar, without the long drive.