EVERETT — Providence Swedish opened two new clinics in Snohomish County in March as part of an effort to expand behavioral health services throughout the county.

The clinics are located in Everett and Edmonds. In Everett, a new clinic at its Pacific campus offers a partial hospitalization group therapy program five days per week. Partial hospitalization programs provide more intense care than a person would receive at a doctor’s or therapist’s office but don’t require patients to stay overnight.

Along with offering another partial hospitalization therapy program, the Edmonds location also offers intensive outpatient group therapy three days per week and consolidates all Edmonds outpatient behavioral health care in that space. The Edmonds location, which is in a renovated clinic, can now accommodate up to 30 patients at a time, up from 12 at the previous facility, the medical groups wrote in a release.

Later this year, the new Everett facility will also offer intensive outpatient group therapy, the medical groups wrote.

The two programs — partial hospitalization group therapy and intensive outpatient care — are steps down from inpatient facilities, which provide 24-hour care to those experiencing acute psychiatric illness. Providence Swedish hopes to use the group-therapy programs, which provide tools and training for patients to manage mental health concerns, to “expand access to treatment that accommodate the diverse needs of the community,” the medical groups wrote.

The programs are intended for individuals who have symptoms which require more support than possible in traditional outpatient settings, Providence Swedish wrote, but for those who are not an imminent threat to themselves or others. Patients can either be referred to the programs by a health care professional or self-refer to be evaluated for care, the medical groups wrote.

Federal data shows there is a shortage of mental health providers in parts of every county in Washington. There is a particularly urgent need for inpatient psychiatric facilities and qualified psychiatrists to staff them, workers at behavioral health nonprofit Compass Health previously said.

Providence Health and Services and Swedish Health Services affiliated in 2012, making the organizations the largest health care system in western Washington. The medical groups run eight hospitals and 244 clinics in the Puget Sound area, including Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. That hospital is already home to an inpatient behavioral health unit and a behavioral health urgent care clinic.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.