Our Menninger
Clinic Story

Our daughter grew up with the love and support of her family, therapists, and the teachers at her schools that were focused on young people that needed “a little help.” After graduating high school, we sought recommendations for in-patient treatment facilities to give our daughter more in-depth help. At that time, she had been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, but we were not confident that those diagnoses covered everything or that her medications were the best for her.

CPAS Program Experience

We ultimately chose Menninger because of its CPAS program. That program was marketed as a two to three-week in-depth testing period to ensure mental health diagnoses are absolutely right and medication is correct. We felt the CPAS program, which was not offered at most of the other recommended facilities, would “set up” our daughter for success.

We noticed fairly quickly it did not seem to be what was advertised. What was advertised was meeting with not only therapists but psychiatrists 2-3 times a week during CPAS. After nearly 10 days, our daughter had not seen the psychiatrist or undergone any testing. After voicing our concern, we were assured the CPAS program would pick up.

Since Menninger is a private pay facility, the CPAS program charges $50,000.00 upfront for three weeks, but we were assured if it “only” took two weeks as opposed to three, a credit could be applied to the next phase of her treatment.

Surprising us, the CPAS program took the entire three weeks. At the end of the CPAS program, we had a family session with “the team” to go over testing, results, and recommendations. It appeared to us that (aside from some brain scans done at a different hospital for even more money), the advertised “in-depth” testing was basic testing that our daughter had done for accommodations and medication since childhood. It was testing that could have been done in a day or two, certainly not taken three weeks. Her diagnoses stated the same and her medication was unchanged. Another surprise to us was that our daughter was not diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) because she was “too articulate” and “could look you in the eye,” even though she bore classic hallmarks of the disorder. After that, our daughter moved to the Compass program to participate in therapy with other young adults.

Transition to Compass Program

Compass turned out to be a bigger disappointment than CPAS. On the one hand, it is a lock-down facility where the patients cannot leave on their own and are subjected to bed checks every 15 minutes throughout the night. On the other hand, patients are allowed to self-direct their care. Our daughter was in a place where she could not care for herself to the extent of brushing her teeth or bathing, but she was allowed to sleep through meals, stop taking her medications for a month (which we were not informed of), and not participate in groups. When we made the journey to visit our daughter, we quickly noticed that she demonstrated no signs of improvement. She had been allowed to focus her treatment exclusively on transgender concerns without addressing the lack of self-care that was preventing her from living independently.

When we raised this concern the following week during our family session, we were told the team saw significant progress in other areas. They then pitted us against our child by recommending the Bridge Program, where she would have more freedom, and placing us in a position where we would be the “bad guys” if we said no to the change. As her parents, we knew in our hearts that she was not ready and that “failing” at Bridge would be a devastating blow, but Menninger left us little choice and we decided to place our faith in the medical experts.

Bridge Program and Further Regression

At Bridge, our child (now identifying as male) regressed even further. We learned that he had been eating unhealthy foods and not drinking water the entire time he was there, which of course impacted his mental health. They sent him out to the ER for fluids, claiming his pulse spread was dangerous and that he needed an EKG. Not until 2.5 months into the program did they attempt to increase our child’s medications (even though they diagnosed him with persistent depressive disorder and chronic anxiety despite being on medications back at CPAS). They also sent him back to Compass from Bridge, which caused the exact feelings of failure that we predicted would be the likely outcome from progressing him in treatment before he was ready. It turns out, when Menninger realized they could not help him, they manufactured an eating disorder – which they said was too severe for them to treat – to get him out of the facility. Although very thin, our child has never had a diagnosed eating disorder.

Misdiagnosis and Transfer to Eating Recovery Center

Without knowing what else to do, we got more recommendations and moved our child to the Eating Recovery Center in Baltimore. It took them less than a week to determine that he had disordered eating because of depression, but he did not have an eating disorder. When presented with healthier food options, he was eating everything given to him. He spent only 10 days at ERC before we had to fly back to Baltimore to discharge him.

Although we were relieved our child did not have an eating disorder, after three months of treatment at Menninger (and nearly $200,000 out-of-pocket), he was no better off than when we admitted him. Our child is now at a healing farm in North Carolina, but his progress is incredibly slow due to treatment fatigue and a distrust of his care team.

Reconsider Selecting Menninger

If you or a loved one have generalized depression, anxiety, and/or ASD – or you suspect those are possible diagnoses – we urge you to reconsider selecting Menninger for diagnosis and treatment. They failed our child on so many levels, setting him back in his treatment and setting us back a significant amount of money (even once insurance did provide some reimbursements).