Michael and Billie Kubly, who pledged $5million to Marquette University earlier this year to support research on the treatment of mental illness, are giving $2.5 million to Rogers Memorial Hospital Foundation.
The gift — the largest in the hospital’s history — was announced Monday.
The donation will support the expansion of a residential program that treats young adults with severe depression and mood disorders. It also will help the hospital develop a transitional living facility for the patients and to support research on a computer-based tool for treating anxiety.
“Those diagnosed with depression need more access to treatment and support through expanded programs and innovative research,” Billie Kubly said in a statement. “This is why my husband Mike and I feel so blessed to be able to make this donation to Rogers Memorial Hospital.”
Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc can provide care to about 150 patients in its residential treatment programs. The Oconomowoc campus is the only site in the Rogers Behavioral Health System that offers residential treatment.
The programs, which involve stays of 30 days or more, are designed for people who have been repeatedly hospitalized.
Hospital, or inpatient, care, which typically lasts from five to seven days, is designed for patients who are in crisis and require acute care.
Rogers Memorial is known for its residential programs for eating disorders and for obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders. It also has residential programs for drug and alcohol addiction and mood disorders.
The residential program for young adults with depression and mood disorders is at capacity, said Jerry Halverson, the medical director for the Oconomowoc campus.
The program will be renamed the Charles E. Kubly FOCUS Center, in memory of the Kublys’ youngest son, who died of suicide in 2003 at the age of 28.
The donation also will help support construction of a transitional living facility to give patients in the program a step-down treatment option. It will be named the Charles E. Kubly Transition House.
The new facility will enable people to move to a less costly and less structured setting while still receiving outpatient care, Halverson said.
The Kublys’ other gifts have included a previous gift to Rogers Memorial Hospital for a counseling center and to the Medical College of Wisconsin for a project that links pediatricians to psychiatrists.
Michael Kubly, an orthopedic surgeon, graduated from the medical school that once was part of Marquette and now is the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Rogers Behavioral Health System last week opened a hospital at 4600 W. Schroeder Drive, just off Brown Deer Road, in Milwaukee that eventually could have 56 beds for patients who require acute care. The health system also operates a hospital with 80 beds in West Allis.