Local nonprofit brings mental healthcare right to north Tulsa residents’ doors

TULSA, Okla. — A nonprofit is launching a new mobile mental health bus in an effort to help the north Tulsa community access mental healthcare for free.

Skillz on Wheelz and the people behind it told FOX23 they want to bring therapy to a community they feel is underserved.

Ebony Skillens is the founder of the nonprofit, and she explained it was all about access.

“Specifically for those residents in north Tulsa,” Skillens said. “Because we know that there is a desert there, right? … an access to health care desert.”

Skillens is taking the bus to different areas around north Tulsa on different days. She said the bus will travel to north Tulsa multiple times a week so people can receive the mental healthcare they need.

The bus has a waiting area and a room for therapy sessions in the back.

Funded with help from the Terence Crutcher Foundation, Skillens said six licensed clinicians who are part of the Black Mental Health Alliance will be able to give three to six free sessions to people or family groups.

She said it’s important that the therapists are from the community they serve.

“All of the therapists who are part of Skillz on Wheelz look like the community, and most of us live in the community,” Skillen said. “So it’s just that familiar, trusting face that the residents of north Tulsa will see.”

Mental healthcare is a service Skillen said is vital to the community.

“There’s a lady, she can’t drive. She’s limited with her time because the kids are in school, and they walk home,” she said. “She just needs somebody to listen. So that’s what Skillz on Wheels is about.”

The organization also aims to help heal and honor the Black community in north Tulsa.

Any north Tulsa resident that is interested in the nonprofit can check out their website.

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