Neo-Adult Program

   As of March 1994, Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital designated up to 14 of its 90 beds for Neo-Adult Psychiatric Program to provide therapy specifically designed for patients who have reached their eighteenth birthday and have not attained the age of twenty-one when entering the program. Patients with a primary psychiatric disorder are included. Specifically excluded are those patients with exclusive substance abuse, severe organic mental disorders, or developmental disorders. Entry is from the mental health centers and the mental hygiene commissioners or on transfer from Sharpe Hospital in Weston, WV.

    The Neo-Adult beds are on a coed wing of a 30-bed unit. The other beds house patients twenty-one years of age or older with similar mental disorders. These are semi-private rooms with a semi-private shower/bathroom. Many of the hospital's facilities are shared by both populations; these include facilities on the unit, in the dining room, and during some recreational and religious activities. The Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital milieu stresses healthy interactions with both sexes and all adult ages. The Neo-Adult program, however, offers  some separate group therapy and specialized programming.

Transitions Program

   The concept of a transition unit grew out of several observations about the need for some patients to have a period of hospitalization beyond the 14 to 30 days that seems adequate for most patients. When these extended care patients remained in the units with acutely ill patient, it appeared that the attention to the needs of both groups became compromised and neither group was optimally served.

Patients may be referred to Unit 2 when:

    1.    They have improved to the extent that they are at level 3 and approaching level 4, and
    2.    They show a need for further treatment in psychosocial area and/or

    3.    They have not reached optimal response and need further adjustment of
           psychotropic medication, or
    4.    They have demonstrated early and/or frequent relapse in the past when discharged
           to the community.

This unit places emphasis in the following program areas:

    Focused Groups - with close attention to re-socialization and community skills
    development.

    1.    Group Therapy is available daily. In addition, focused groups also occur in
           accordance with the identified needs of the patient population at any given time,
           e.g. stress reduction management of anger, self-injury, discharge issues.

    2.    On unit attention is geared to developing independence with support in areas of
           appearance, medication and participation in unit as a community.

   3.    Off unit adjunctive therapies that allow patient "everyday living," skill
           development, appreciation for variety of leisure time activities and recognition of
           personal assets and capabilities.