Compass was founded and led by experienced child and adolescent, and adult psychiatrists Dr. David Schreiber, MD and Dr. Claudia Welke, MD when they recognized the need for patient-centered, intensive, non-hospital based psychiatric care in the Chicago area.

While working together in a hospital that provided PHP/IOP and inpatient hospitalization, Dr. Schreiber and Dr. Welke realized that there were not enough psychiatrists or hospital beds to treat the children they saw in behavioral health crises. As a result, children were being placed on long wait lists, which often only made them sicker, resulting in ER visits that would lead to admission for inpatient care. Dr. Schreiber and Dr. Welke realized that with the proper resources in place, many of these ER and inpatient hospitalizations could have been avoided and replaced with a level of care that was timelier, more appropriate, and less costly and disruptive.

In 2011, Compass Health Center’s first location in Northbrook, IL opened its doors, serving adolescent and young adult patients. Since then, Compass has served more patients each year, expanding to new regions, opening new specialty care offerings, and steadily expanding the variety of patients treated.