Advocate Center offers psychiatric therapy

    The Grace C. Mae Advocate Center is a non-profit mental health care facility that opened in Washington a few months ago. The Advocate Center is renting an office space in Hamakua Place on South Iowa Avenue. Therapists at the center treat patients with mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

    The Washington office is the fourth Advocate Center branch opened in eastern Iowa. Dr. Patricia Gilbaugh opened the first Grace C. Mae Advocate Center in January 2009 in the town of Van Horne, 15 miles west of Cedar Rapids. Gilbaugh named the Advocate Center after her daughter. When Gilbaugh gave birth to Grace five years ago, doctors told her and her husband Scott that Grace would never walk, would be mentally retarded and would likely die in a few weeks or months. Scott and Patti advocated for early cognitive intervention and aggressive medical treatment for Grace, which paid off.

    Grace beat the odds and is now, according to Gilbaugh, ?a thriving 5-year-old who is very bright, has a great sense of humor and demonstrates daily to those around her that she is truly amazing.?

    Gilbaugh said that she opened the Advocate Center to ?pay it forward? because she wanted to give a helping hand to people in need, just like she was given after her daughter?s birth.  

    The Advocate Center has offices in Van Horne, Cedar Rapids, Marengo and now Washington. The counselors and therapists who work for the Advocate Center travel from one office to the other throughout the week. Director of therapeutic services Shanon Claussen said the number of clients she sees in the Washington office has increased steadily since the branch opened in March. She said the Advocate Center had a booth at Kidzfest last Friday, which she hoped would increase the center?s visibility in the community.

    ?We keep getting new referrals every week,? said Claussen. ?There isn?t a week where we don?t get at least one more person. We just got five or six referrals over the weekend. We?re probably up to 25 people that we treat in this office.?

    Claussen said that 65 percent of the Advocate Center?s patients are children. She said one way of understanding what problems children suffer from is to have them play with toys. 

For more, see our June 2 print edition.