News

On September 20-21, Rogers Memorial Hospital exhibited its services, along with many community partners, at the 16th Annual Crisis Intervention Conference in the Wisconsin Dells. About 600 people attended, representing a variety of crisis response services. The conference – “Promoting Resiliency in the Face of Crisis” – featured educational information focusing on patient centered care. Goals included validating and affirming those in crisis, while helping to “normalize” a crisis using tools to mitigate stress, as well as offering prevention and aftercare approaches. Along with spirituality, managing stress and addressing mental health disease were recommended. Based on the positive findings of meta-analysis and randomized, controlled trials, there was strong evidence supporting the incorporation of mind-body approaches to behavioral health. The conference was sponsored by Northwest Connections, Mental Health America of Wisconsin, Ministry Health Care and the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point Continuing Education also emphasized the importance of collaboration in the community and the sharing of resources.

Staff, friends and family at Rogers Memorial Hospital-Oconomowoc continued to celebrate the completion of the last phase of construction on September 19. The day kicked off with a breakfast for medical staff, followed by a BBQ in the afternoon for health care, social services and other area professionals. Ellin Rosenthal, a former patient’s mother, told the story of how her daughter began developing multiple medical conditions, including renal and GI disorders, OCD and Tourette’s at the young age of 2. When her daughter turned 16, her significant OCD and anxiety became so enmeshed with the medical issues she faced that they decided to seek treatment outside their local facility. Ellin relayed how – in just three months at Rogers – her daughter was able to return home, have her GI-tube removed, and get her driver’s license.

The long-awaited celebration culminated with a special event for employees and their families and friends, who were invited to take a tour of the new stand-alone building. The new 33,140-square-foot building now houses our two nationally recognized programs for children and adolescents under one roof. The Child Center (children, 8-13) and Child & Adolescent Centers (adolescents, 12-17) are under the direction of two board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrists who practice full time at Rogers Memorial Hospital – Peter M. Lake, MD, and Stephanie Eken, MD, FAAP.

The campus also celebrated the opening of a dedicated wing in the new building that features intensive, challenging cognitive-behavioral therapy in a structured, manageable environment, along with the new inpatient and experiential facilities (second and third phases of the construction project). The inpatient addition replaces all of the hospital’s former inpatient units with 58 private patient rooms. The 27,500-square-foot experiential therapy center features a gymnasium, art therapy studio, recreation room, fitness area and classroom. All of the new facilities provide a therapeutic environment where we can offer patients unmatched comfort, privacy and amenities.