A new mental health treatment center for teens is now open in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood, marking the first time Newport Healthcare has expanded outside of Pennsylvania.
Center for Families, at 3033 Excelsior Boulevard, serves those ages 13 to 18 years old. Andrew Suma, Senior Director of Clinical Outreach at Center for Families, says there’s long been a long existing gap in teen metal health services. Their Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) level of care runs five days a week and provides a day school where teens can find sustainable healing during their mental health journey.
“Our young folks that are in the process of in their journey trying to find sustainable healing, but need a little bit of an extended care,” Suma said. “So we're looking you know from 8 until 4, five days a week, we are looking to provide truly integrated care. Everything from the best modalities available.
Modalities that you don't see most therapeutic options and we're just ecstatic to bring that care to Minneapolis.”
Suma believes expanding from Pennsylvania into Minnesota comes at just the right time. Data released in October shows there are currently less than 200 psychiatric hospital beds for youth and 590 adult beds in Minnesota, not including state-run facilities.
“Minneapolis is representative of many other parts of the country. To be honest, there’s a significant lack of treatment really throughout the country,” Suma said.
“Minnesota in general has right around 200 psychiatric beds. That number fluctuates kind of depending on what data you're looking at, but in a state of about 5.7 million people that's just a drastic lack of resources.”
Last year’s Minnesota Student Survey revealed nearly one-third of 11th graders seriously considered suicide at some point in their life. That’s compared to 24 percent in 2019 and 23 percent in 2013.
Those numbers were even higher for LBTQ+ students who were about three times more likely than heterosexual students to report seriously considering suicide and four times more likely to attempt suicide.
Transgender students in the 11th grade, according to the survey, are most likely to attempt suicide and “more than four time more likely to attempt suicide than their cis-gender 11th grade peers.”
“Anyone that has a teenager or is in close proximity to teenagers on a regular basis would tell you that unfortunately teen mental health is getting worse,” added Suma. “I think there's a lot of contributing factors that you can look. Everything from social media to increased academic pressure.”
Center for Families incorporates a number of therapies including individual therapy, family therapy, and group experiential activities. Those include things like yoga, art, music, and outdoor experiences.
“I think we hear a lot in the mental health field about a tool. We have a lot of tools in the tool that can help individuals you know make progress in their life. One thing that I don't think is often addressed is you know if you use that same metaphor you give me a tool, if you use that same metaphor you give me a tool okay right you asked me to build a house, I'm not going to know what to do with a lot of those tools. If I have a place to practice and a place to learn how to apply those tools, I think that makes all the difference. That's what we're really striving to do is to not only provide the tools provide an environment where both the individual and the family have a chance to practice for an extended period of time so that family system can heal as a whole.”
Center for Families also allows teen to make-up academic credits in an effort to stay on track in school with up to four hours of academics daily, special education teachers and tutors, and other support systems.
“There's something about the name in and of itself Center for Families which is somewhat self-explanatory on what we are there to do. We're there to help families and there are lots of different providers throughout the area and throughout the state. But when you think about what Center for Families does, it's really in the name. We are there for the family system, for the individuals that are struggling, and for those that love and care about them.”