Menninger is a leading psychiatric center dedicated to treating individuals with mood, personality, anxiety and addictive disorders, teaching mental health professionals and advancing mental healthcare through research.

Compass Young Adult Program

Program life
The Menninger Clinic strives to offer a treatment experience that differs from a traditional hospital to help patients take full advantage of treatment.

Where patients reside
The Compass Program is located in one of the seven one-story buildings on the 14-acre campus shaded by tall pines. The patient living buildings are much like a university residence hall with patient rooms up and down the hallway. A spacious common area with sofas and tables exists between the halls and staffing area. Rooms where groups meet, nursing station with an open doorway, TV/game area, a kitchen-snack room and laundry room round out the Program’s space.

On the Houston-based campus, lawn chairs, gazebos, a pool, a full-size gymnasium, tennis courts, walking trail along with the sounds and sights of a backyard await patients during their unscheduled time.

Program elements:
Below are some examples of the various approaches that are employed to engage patients in treatment and address specific needs.

Collaboration is the most important part of the treatment. Regardless of the group or activity, we work with patients to establish a sense of partnership in the creation of treatment goals and in the evaluation of how things are going.

Discovering Agency is a group that specifically focuses on how patients can become real participants in their treatment.

Mentalizing is a process of learning how to reflect rather than react to situations you encounter. It involves being able to pause when a person feels impulsive and then try to connect with one’s own thoughts and feelings, as well as better understand what is going on with others. It is also an important part of helping to understand a person’s core issues. Mentalizing Group focuses on this.

Diagnostic Team Meeting: After two to three weeks and the team has had an opportunity to work with the patient, complete assessments and reach a diagnosis and recommendations for treatment, the team meets with the patient and family to share its findings and discuss the direction for the remaining treatment.

Individual Psychotherapy is a highly valued aspect of treatment. Therapists are chosen with respect to the relevance of their approach and orientation to the specific patient’s needs. Sessions are usually held twice weekly.

Group Psychotherapy: Participation in group psychotherapy provides patients with the opportunity to share thoughts and feelings in a safe and confidential environment. This is the least structured group offered on Compass. In a group setting with peers who have experienced similar struggles, patients have a place to explore their innermost feelings, discuss relationship issues and explore options. Therapists help provide structure and interpretation but in this group, the relationship with self and with peers is emphasized.

Men’s/Women’s groups: These groups provide an opportunity for men and women in separate groups to explore issues related to esteem, sense of self and other gender-related issues in a supportive setting.

DBT Skills Training Group provides an approach to and specific skills in learning more about how to manage intense emotions and deal with interpersonal conflict.

Social Skills Training Group likewise deals with the struggles of social anxiety and finding ways to deal with others employing role-play as well as a social outing to practice newly acquired skills.

Family Dynamics and Roles & Relationships Groups provide patients with information and discussion on family and relationship functioning and encourage reflection on patients’ own experience through the use of various exercises.

Meditation group: This group provides a guided meditative experience. The purpose is to introduce patients to the stress-relieving benefits of a daily meditation practice that facilitates calming mental activities and living in the present moment.

Physical Fitness Groups encourage wellness and the benefits that come from exercise and engagement with others in social sports activities.

Spirituality group: This group helps individuals explore the relationships between God/higher Power, self and others, and how these relationships may impact their current issues and conflicts. Religious theologies are respected while discussion focuses on how individuals’ perspective on their belief system may help or hinder their wellness.

Addictions Track Groups and Activities: Patients who have some history of substance abuse or other addictive behavior receive an Addictions Consultation. Those who are judged to be in need of elements of the Addictions Track participate in a wide variety of 12-step groups and programming as well as addictions education and supervised off-campus support groups where appropriate.

Community meeting: The focus of this group meeting is to provide a forum for the residents of Compass and staff to discuss issues or events affecting their community.

A wide range of specialty groups, such as Coping with Trauma, Body Image Group, Perfectionism Group and Self-injury Group are regularly available for patients who have special needs to work on the issues they cover.

Atmosphere on the unit
Staff dress in business and business casual attire. Patients are encouraged to dress comfortably. Appropriate attire is required on the unit at all times. The guidelines are: be clean and covered, and shoes and shirt are required.

Most of the treatment team offices are located in the building with the unit. As a result, members of the entire treatment team interact with patients both formally in treatment and informally throughout the day. Staff are available on the unit around the clock when patients have questions or need support.

At Menninger, the patients and staff function together as a community. The patient community plays a vital part in the milieu. Patients meet weekly in a community meeting. This meeting provides a forum to welcome new patients and staff, say goodbye to those leaving and to discuss issues of interest to the patients. Each day patients and staff meet to plan the activities for evenings and for trips into the community.

For meals, patients are encouraged to eat together in the Dining Room with supervision of staff. Meals are also delivered to the unit. At the cafeteria, patients and staff throughout Menninger share the same main dining room.

The unit is left unlocked unless the staff or patient community determines that locking the unit is best for the safety of one of the patients and the patient community.

First days in the program

• With an Admissions coordinator, the patient and family complete the admissions paperwork.
• Members of the treatment team greet the patient and family on the unit.
• The staff inventories and checks the patient’s personal belongings.
• The patient moves into his/her room. Rooms are set up for double occupancy. Each offers an in-room bathroom with tub/shower, individual desks, a closet and a window. A handicapped accessible room is also available. This is a co-ed program. Roommates are the same gender. Patients socialize in the common areas and not in one another’s rooms.
• A staff psychiatrist and an internal medicine physician see the patient within 24 hours of admission.
• Staff introduce the patient to other staff and patients, and orient them to the unit.
• The treatment team and patient work together to stabilize symptoms and begin assessments that help the team better understand the patient and his/her needs. During these days, the patient may participate in a shortened version of the core programming. The treatment team and patient collaborate on goals for treatment, and a treatment plan is set.

Daily treatment
The Compass Program provides a supportive and structured environment specifically for young adults, ages 18 to 30, who struggle with managing the transition from adolescence into adulthood. A dual disorders treatment program for individuals with substance abuse or addiction is also available.

Treatment addresses the factors that affect young adult patients who are having difficulty navigating developmental stages and managing mental illness. The treatment team works with each patient to diagnose any inherited characteristics in their illness, assess significant life events that may influence their functioning and address family, occupational and cultural effects on the patient's well-being.

Therapy integrates teaching of life management skills, more effective coping strategies and social rehabilitation. Patients participate in a structured treatment schedule Monday-Friday. On weekends, in addition to scheduled groups and activities patients learn to manage unscheduled time, putting into practice the life and leisure skills they are addressing in specialty groups. Patients also use unscheduled time to complete projects related to their treatment and take part in physical fitness activities.

The young adults participate in core program activities and specialized therapies, which are based on the clinical needs of each individual. Patients experiencing substance abuse or addictive disorders also participate in 12-step addictions treatment. These therapies are integrated into the following core schedule.

The treatment team may enhance programming and update the schedule to meet the needs of patients.

Unstructured time
An important component of the program is teaching individuals how to use unstructured time more effectively. The Menninger Clinic makes provisions for unstructured times within the program’s community calendar activities. The goal is to reflect upon how patients will use leisure time outside the treatment setting. The staff considers the use of leisure time and relaxation as important aspects of personal mental health.

Unscheduled time may be used to do therapy homework, “practice” socializing with others, relax with a hobby or activity, exercise, read or participate with other patients and staff in planned recreational activities.

Supervision by staff
The patient’s treatment team determines the level of supervision the patient needs. Supervision levels change throughout a patient’s stay based on the team’s assessment of the patient’s clinical needs.

The supervision levels and the activities prescribed by the treatment team aim to help the patient accomplish treatment goals and provide for the patient’s safety. As the patient attains their goals, they typically earn privileges to participate in individual and group activities on and off the campus.

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Menninger is a leading psychiatric hospital dedicated to
treating individuals with mood, personality, anxiety and
addictive disorders, teaching mental health professionals
and advancing mental healthcare through research.

The Menninger Clinic | 800-351-9058 | 713-275-5000 | Houston, Texas
Affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and
The Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center
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