CooperRiis Mill Spring

CooperRiis Mill Spring Review

Mill Spring, North Carolina’s CooperRiis Healing Community is a residential treatment facility for men and women with a primary diagnosis of mental illness. The Mill Spring campus is known as The Farm, which houses 36 clients on a 94 acre working farm. Treatment at this location offers individualized care, group and individual therapy, opportunities for community service work, and dual diagnosis support.

Accommodations and Food

The sprawling campus is situated near the foothills of the Blue Mountains. They divide 36 clients into groups of 12 and separate them throughout three lodges. It’s worth mentioning, each of the solo lodges offer private bedrooms and bathrooms.

Others areas throughout the campus include staff buildings, the main therapy center, an art barn, spaces for workshops, greenhouses, and several organic gardens.

An on-site kitchen staff prepares all meals. They prepare food from set menus that a staff health coordinator arranges. Most of the time the food is created using some of the ingredients from the gardens on site.

Treatment and Staff

There are about 20 hours per week that factor into the community service aspect of treatment at this location. Other than that, there are several group sessions each week that include process groups, trauma informed and dual diagnosis specific. Psychiatric services are available throughout treatment.

The community outreach aspect to this program requires that each person in treatment take on a task or job that gives back to others. Some of the jobs at CooperRiis include helping with the animals on the farm, tending to the garden, drum building, soap making, and volunteering. This is slightly different than the Asheville program because the residents of The Farm are typically on campus for their community work while they reserve the weekends for outings.

The treatment utilizes evidence-based protocols such as CBT, DBT, EMDR, mindfulness and integrative approaches. Dual diagnosis clients attend 12-step meetings, SMART Recovery and codependency groups. They also work on relapse prevention techniques. Other aspects of this program are an emphasis on exercise and nutrition.

At The Farm there are recovery and clinical staff members who work with a community based team and residential staff members. Staff credentials include psychiatrists, CCS, LCAS, LCSW, MPH, and LPN.

Extras

On an average weekend the clients go out of recreational excursions throughout the area. There is an aftercare transitional program that provides housing in several areas throughout the community.

Finally, additional amenities are massage and acupuncture.

In Summary

This program really focuses on clients learning a series of valuable skills that help by contributing to others, but also on the concept of building up one’s self esteem so they feel confident to live on their own. The clients live and work on the farm and learn how to cope with their condition and put in a good day’s work. Overall, CooperRiis offers a lovely living environment, holistic approaches and a caring, energized staff.