The Menninger Clinic in Houston recently announced a new $16 million outpatient and education center to help address the community’s unmet needs for mental health care and education. Construction of the 25,000-square-foot building will begin this fall with the opening slated for fall 2018.

The center will offer more continuity of treatment for inpatients after they discharge from any of Menninger’s five specialty adolescent and adult programs. The single-story location also will provide space for more individual, group and family therapy, assessments and consultations as well as remote access to Menninger specialists for outpatients outside Greater Houston via secure teleconferencing.

Menninger’s one-and-a-half-year-old Center for Brain Stimulation will be housed in the new building as well. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroconvulsive therapy and ketamine infusion therapy can be provided on an outpatient basis.

In addition, the new building will support Menninger’s academic mission and affiliation with Baylor College of Medicine.

The education and conference center addresses Menninger’s shortage of space for professional continuing education, family education, public programs and other community events. The 300-seat center will be able to host small meetings or larger auditorium events. It will also be used by Baylor College of Medicine faculty and trainees who frequent the Menninger campus for clinical and classroom training.

Houston-based Kirksey Architecture is leading the project’s design.