Winnebago Mental Health Institute: Patients and Services
Winnebago Mental Health Institute offers services that help people with mental health needs.
Where to get help
At our facility, we don’t take walk-ins. This means you cannot check in without a referral. If you need help, either:
- Call a crisis line or helpline for help with a stressful event.
- Call 911 if you are in danger.
Our patients
Patients come to us based on a referral from county health and human services agencies and the court system. We cannot admit people who show up at our doors without a referral. We have two types of patients:
- Civil patients—These are patients who are ordered to get psychiatric assessments and treatment at a mental health facility. Patients are inpatient, which means they check in and stay for a period of time. This process happens through emergency detention and commitment proceedings.
- Forensic patients—These are patients who a court orders to get either:
- A mental health competency evaluation—Looks at a patient’s mental health. Confirms how much they remember or know about their criminal charges.
- Treatment to competency services—Care for a patient who a court finds unable to go to trial due to a mental health condition. Treats the patient to restore mental health.
- Treatment for mental illness—Care for a patient found not guilty of a crime because of mental illness.
Types of care units
Winnebago Mental Health Institute has seven patient care units that offer different services:
- Choices—Forensic unit in Gordon Hall
- Helps prepare patients to get back in the community
- Includes work programs
- Treats long-term patients, male and female, who need general psychiatric care
- Has minimum security
- Gemini—Civil admission, assessment, and treatment unit in Gordon Hall
- Helps patients return home to their community
- Uses an intensive treatment program
- Can treat men and women dually diagnosed with a mental illness and substance use issues
- Has minimum security
- Petersik Hall South—Admission, assessment, and treatment unit
- Has both men and women patients
- Has medium security
- Petersik Hall North—Admission, assessment, and treatment unit
- Has both men and women patients
- Has medium security
- Sherman Hall North and South—Civil units
- Helps patients manage symptoms
- Includes patients who are checked in to get a psychiatric assessment, stabilize or manage medicine, and get treatment
- Treats both men and women
- Has minimum security
- Youth Services Unit—Civil assessment and treatment unit in Sherman Hall
- Helps kids and teens with:
- Psychiatric disorders.
- Behavioral disorders.
- Developmental disabilities.
- Dually diagnosed mental health and substance use issues.
- Works with the patient, their family, and staff from the county where the patient lives
- Uses one-on-one and group treatment
- Offers short-term treatment options that focus on getting back in the community
- Has a male wing and female wing
- Helps kids and teens with:
- Waterwood School—For patients who need K–12 education services