Mendota Mental Hlth Institute

Description

Credo Mission Vision and Values

CREDO
quotHow Can We Helpquot

MISSION
quotMendota helps by providing quality mental health treatment and patient care in safe settings for challenging and complex patient populationsquot

VISION
Mendota shall play a prominent role in providing innovative compassionate mental health treatment and patient care for the States most challenging and complex patient populations

VALUES
Patient Interactions
Helping We help by listening to each patients needs understanding their
circumstances and acting in response

Quality Treatment and Care Quality mental health treatment and patient care
must always be provided to our patients and continuously improved as
knowledge advances

Respect and Dignity All patients deserve to be treated with respect and
dignity

Safety and Security All patients deserve to feel safe and secure when in
our care

Participation Patient and family participation in treatment planning and
input in other aspects of their care is essential

History

Background of Promise
Mendota opened on July 14 1860 when it admitted a patient who had been brought all the way from Oconto Countya long trip by horse and wagon Even though the hospital was not yet ready to open that Saturday it was decided that because of the distance the patient had been brought he should be received Thus began Mendotas ready response to the needs of patients and communities which has been its tradition

Mendota has gone through many changes since then some of them dramatized in the changes in its name It opened as an quotAsylumquot appropriate in an era when little could be done for the mentally ill except to house and care for themie to give them asylumwhen their families and communities could no longer cope with their needs

In a later era when patients were recognized as having an illnessmental illnessthe name was changed to Mendota State Hospital reflecting its responsibility for providing treatment

In more recent times with the discovery of psychiatric medications and with new approaches some of which resulted from research at Mendota itself it became possible for the mentally ill to be treated in community hospitals and clinics But there remained a need for a place for those who required more specialized treatment than most community hospitals and clinics could provide and where the tradition of research education and consultation that Mendota had already established could continue Mendota was then changed to its present name of Mendota Mental Health Institute

Mendota has a distinguished history as one of the most progressive psychiatric facilities in the country It is wellknown for its advanced programs

The methods for community treatment developed in Mendotas PACT program have been adopted throughout Wisconsin and many other states as well as abroad

Mendotas program in forensic psychiatry has been recognized by the National Institute of Mental Health as one of the top ten such programs in the United States

Mendotas Geropsychiatric Treatment Unit is noted for its assessment and treatment of the elderly who suffer from emotional and neurological conditions which affect behavior including Alzheimers Disease

But those are only a few of Mendotas programs in all there are 13 treatment units serving the needs of adults and elderly as well as special forensic populations Each has a distinguished record of achievement

Mendota is the only facility in Wisconsin public or private which ever received the Gold Achievement Award of the American Psychiatric Association the highest award possible for mental health programs in America

Mendota was one of the first mental hospitals in the country to receive accreditation by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals which continues to accredit Mendota today

Mendota has been the quotcradlequot for the clinical education of hundreds of mental health professionals in Wisconsin and beyond And Mendota provides for their continued education by offering regular seminars and workshops

When Mendota opened in 1860 it was the first mental hospital in Wisconsin It held a promise of something better than this state had ever had before It has not failed to keep that promise

Mendota is owned by the people of Wisconsin and they have every right to be proud of itof its history its achievements today and its promise for the future