HOUSTON (FOX 26) -
One of the leading inpatient psychiatric hospitals in the U.S. can be found in Houston.
Specialistsat The Menninger Clinic focus on treating individuals with complex mentalillness, like severe mood, personality, anxiety, and addictive disorders. Theyoutgrew their dated building and are now thriving in a new Epicenter justoutside of the Texas Medical Center that covers almost 50 acres.
Everythingfrom the furniture to the light fixtures are designed to feel like home. Dr. Pam Greene and Ian Aitken, president and CEO of The Menninger Clinic, gave FOX 26 News a tourof the new facility. The clinic has joined forces with Baylor College of Medicinein a collaboration to find more treatments and more importantly, a cure forbrain disorders.
FOX 26 found the new facility to be an incredibly restorative space. The facility includes almost 650 large planted trees, a pool, an outdoor kitchen, and a serenity garden. A chapel is a peaceful place for patients to spend some quiet time in prayerand it offer support for every religion.
"Ourview about this was that we had to build the Epicenter. We had no choice. Wesaw the prevalence of the disease going up, but we also saw was that thefunding for the people, the stigma for people that surrounds the disease. People weren't getting treatment. One of our hopes for the Epicenter was thatwe could create a state-of-the-art place for treatment, but also get thecommunity's attention," explains Aitken.
Neuropsychiatricdisorders represent 30 percent of all disabling diseases in the world.
"More than cancer at 13 percent or heart disease at 14 percent. Neuropsychiatricdisorders are 30 percent, so that is a significant prevalence of disease in theworld. It causes 550 billion dollars a year for brain disorders in thiscountry, so there's a significant economic issue that relates to this,"says Aitken. Another surprising statistic, Texas is the least funded state, in terms ofper-capita spending, on mental health.
Depressionis the most prevalent condition treated at The Menninger Clinic. A deep, darkdepression can be a life changer for many people, even a life taker. Aitkenshared some surprising news with FOX 26: 36,000 people each year commit suicide.18,000 people each year die from homicides, 33,000 each year die in trafficaccidents. More people commit suicide than through murder or wrecks!
"Wewere concerned this was a disease that's becoming more prevalent, but becauseof the stigma, less people are getting treatment. Our idea was to plant ourflag here, make a lot of noise and that would captivate people and direct moreresearch and finally work more toward trying to find a cure for thedisease," says Aitken.
That isalso why professionals encourage you to know when it is time to seek help. TheSenior Staff Psychologist at The Menninger Clinic and Professor of Psychiatry at BaylorCollege of Medicine has written dozens of books to help people coping withdepression. Dr. Allen says everyone has to be careful how to talk to their family andfriends if they are "ill with depression" and avoid the typicallanguage of what he calls "The J Words."
"If you'd JUST countyour blessings or JUST think positively, or JUST get some exercise, or JUSThave more fun then you'd feel better! Those things work when you feeldepressed, but when you're ill with depression, those things don't work -you're too ill for those typical remedies to work," explains Dr. Allen. He says the first thing you should do when depressed is seek treatment. Theother is to not isolate yourself. He says be engaged in relationships withpeople who will help provide you support.
Aunique program at The Menninger Clinic in Houston is helping high-performance workerswho are having a hard time with their careers and relationships. This canhappen due to a psychiatric disorder, addiction, stress, or just life'sdemands. FOX 26 met up with the manager of The Professionals in Crisis Program, toshow who can benefit from it and how it helps people get back on track. They help a lot of high-profile professionals, like doctors, lawyers, andbusinessmen. The Menninger Clinic has the only "shame resilience"program in the nation, to help these patients overcome these painful feelingsof shame. Studies show twice as many women suffer from depression than men,but that is not obvious in the Professional Program, where they treat the equalnumber of both.
"I think one characteristic that is common among all ofthese people is they tend to be very conscientious, driven, hard working,driven people and sometimes worked at the expense of their own health, theirrelationships," says Michael Groat, the director of the program. He also saysthe program helps people take control of their life and they realizetheir problems are still there, but they have a new way of accepting andapproaching those problems, with a new found sense of hope.
Expertsat The Menninger Clinic say everyone can increase their state of mind with three simplethings in life: quality of sleep, what you eat, and how much you exercise.
Brad Kennedy runs the Pathfinder Group at Menninger Clinic to help lead peopledown the right path toward a healthier state of mind. He suggests you get agood variety of foods in your diet and don't get in a rut of eating the samefoods. He also suggests you keep a food and mood journal to see if a certainfood group is affecting your mood. He says exercise definitely gives you amental boost.
"The research backs it up! Five days a week is just aseffective as anti-depressants. We wouldn't say cut it out of routine ofmedication that you need, but what a benefit to add both. For the average personout there, think about what kind of impact that's going to have? Not justphysically to look good, but chemicals going on in the brain," saysKennedy.
Sleepalso increases your mood! You've heard it before ... eight hours is ideal, but"quality" of sleep is also important. If you have a severe snoringproblem or trouble breathing at night, you might consider getting checked forsleep apnea. Getting good, quality of sleep has proven to make people be in acalmer state of mind.
FOX 26 could not help but ask a leading expert at The Menninger Clinic about JamesHolmes, who is charged with killing and injuring those patrons, turned victims,at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Dr. John Oldham isthe past president of the American Psychiatric Association and serves as theSenior Vice President and Chief of Staff at The Menninger Clinic. Here are his thoughtson whether you can tell if someone is suspicious enough to pull off a heinouscrime.
There's no single or certain prediction that you can make orparticular behavior or sign that would give you 100 percent on anything like that. It's true for all medicine and conditions. If you get to know somebody andworry that there's a pattern of behavior that seems sort of unusual oratypical, a level of discomfort of being in a social situation or engaging innormal activities, that doesn't mean that there's this kind of problem. Itcertainly does suggest there might be a question to raise. People are afraidto talk to people about. You could say, do you have some bad days, do you havereal problems that you're not telling anyone about, you're quiet, you don'tcommunicate, you don't communicate very much and keep to yourself. Is there away I can help? People are reluctant to approach people like that.
FOX 26 also spoke with Elizabeth McIngvale, a former patient at The Menninger Clinic, who became a national spokeswoman for the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation at the age of18! She shared her personal strife from OCD during an interview on "FOX 26 Morning News Extra" and how she is stilltreated today at The Menninger Clinic for it. She is the founder of the Peace ofMind Foundation and even offers a self-assessment test to find out anyindicators if you could be suffering from OCD, anxiety, or depression.
On the Web:
The Menninger Clinic -- http://www.menningerclinic.com/
Peace of Mind Foundation, Inc. -- http://www.peaceofmind.com/
