Family Life Mental Health Center

	Specialists In Mental Health Services

Dr. Robert Baumer

Family Life Mental Health Center will provide top quality, community mental health care to empower clients toward effective prevention and management of behavioral and mental illness. Through education and comprehensive treatment, FLMHC is dedicated to serving the community by fostering wellness and reducing the stigma of “mental illness.” Family Life Mental Health Center is a private, not-for-profit, state approved Rule 29 agency providing comprehensive professional behavioral health care to its community for the prevention and treatment of behavioral and mental illness. The Center will document that the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness are the main purposes of the Center.

Family Life Mental Health Center may also be referred to as Family Life Center, FLMHC, or the Center. The term “Center” means a public or private health and human services facility which provides clinical services in the treatment of mental illness. It is an abbreviated term used in place of “mental health center.”

The Center will provide clinical services through its multidisciplinary staff to serve clients with the purpose of treating mental illness. The term “Multidisciplinary staff” means the mental health professionals and mental health practitioners employed by or under contract to the Center to provide outpatient clinical services in the treatment of mental illness. The term “client” means a person accepted by the Center to receive clinical services in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. The term “mental illness” means a condition which results in an inability to interpret the environment realistically and in impaired functioning in primary aspects of daily living such as personal relations, living arrangements, work, and recreation, and which is listed in the clinical manual of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9-CM), Ninth Revision (1980), code range 290.0-302.99 or 306.0-316, or the corresponding code in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), Fourth Edition (2000), Axes I, II or III.

FLMHC is located at 1930 Coon Rapids Boulevard, Coon Rapids, MN 55433. The Center occupies the entire facility at its location. All services provided at this location will be conducted in the name of the Center with the exception of rented space to Rise, Inc. for Supported Employment Services and Genoa Pharmacy for medication services.

FLMHC began as an idea in the spring of 1978. Dr. Robert Baumer and two psychiatric nurses collaborated to bring into the north metropolitan area a community-based and comprehensive mental health care service program for people with serious mental illness. This idea was born out of the experience of the need for more coordinated, and responsive mental health services at the time, especially for people suffering with serious mental illness with its life disabling effects in the north metro area.

In the spring of 1978, the clinic started with psychiatric assessment and nursing care. Two therapists with a Master’s degree in counseling were added and a certified occupational therapist joined the staff, all working out of a two-room office in the Anoka Professional Building. Within a year, a significant clientele was being served at the Center. FLMHC became a private nonprofit incorporated one year after its opening.

From the years 1978 to 1983, the Center went through several metamorphoses, moving into larger spaces at the Anoka Professional Building and acquiring more staff including psychiatrists, nursing staff, occupational therapy and group and individual therapists. The day treatment program was developed to provide ongoing socialization and rehabilitation support for people with serious mental illness that resulted in significant functional disability, manifesting with compromised vocational adjustments.

On or about 1984, the Center made another very significant physical metamorphosis, moving from the Anoka Professional Building to the old Anoka Post Office. It is a historical landmark. For several years, Dr. Myron Malecha took on the duties of medical director at the Center and in the following years, became the primary psychiatric practitioner at the Center until his tragic illness and demise in the winter of 2004. In that time span, Dr. Malecha became Anoka County’s most prominent psychiatric practitioner providing comprehensive inpatient psychiatric care at Mercy Medical Center and outpatient care at FLMHC.

During this time span, FLMHC again made a significant physical metamorphosis, moving from the old Anoka post office to a renovated Twin City Federal bank building, across from Hans’ Bakery on Seventh Avenue. This two-story, modern facility more than doubled the space to accommodate the increasing number of providers that, by this time, included approximately thirty staff. At this time, there were four psychiatrists providing either full-time or part-time service with two psychiatric nurses assisting. The Center became the first outpatient site for the provision of dialectical behavior therapy for clients with severe personality disorders. This program was initiated at the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center on or around 1993 and FLMHC, due to its proximity to the state hospital, and to the collaboration of staff and psychiatrists at both Centers, took form on an outpatient basis. This program exists to the present time and has evolved to serve not only its classic defined population group of people with borderline personality disorder but also lower functioning clients with severe disabling behavioral problems. Most recently, the program has been adapted to work with adolescents.

Other programs that have developed over these years include Anger Management and Life Steps. FLMHC grew to include a large psychotherapy staff of fifteen therapists, six psychiatrists and two psychiatric nurses. A whole array of individual, marital, family, and group services are provided. A significant number of clients served at FLMHC are still considered to be in the seriously and persistently mentally ill category. In addition, the Center has developed contracts with managed care companies including Medica, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, HealthPartners and others.

As the Center continues to operate as a private and nonprofit agency, it depends on the contributions and charity and goodwill of the community but is funded primarily by fee for services care (80 percent).

The Center also dispenses large quantities of expensive psychiatric medications to clients who are unable to afford them. It is estimated that well over two hundred thousand dollars worth of medications is given away to clients of the Center in its community yearly.

FLMHC has moved to its new setting at 1930 Coon Rapids Boulevard. FLMHC’s staff has now grown to include four psychiatrists, one nurse practitioner, two nurses, twenty-four therapists, and fourteen support staff. FLMHC’s Board of Directors consists of 7-9 community members.