For a young person, walking into treatment for the first time can feel like a lot. The Child & Adolescent Center at Compass Health Center – Northbrook has been refreshed with that moment in mind. Every part of the space, from the flooring to the furniture, is designed for how children and teens experience care, and for the families who come with them.
Designed Around Development, Not One Size Fits All
A nine-year-old and a fifteen-year-old may need to engage in the same level of care, but they’re in very different places developmentally, and therefore need separate programs designed to create the culture of care that will allow for them to get the most out of treatment. Younger children need a space that feels safe, predictable, and easy to settle into, especially when separating from a parent is the hardest part of the day. Teens, on the other hand, are more attuned to privacy, independence, and how they come across to their peers. A space that respects those differences helps each age group feel at ease from the start.
The refreshed center reflects those differences:
- For children: The child-side spaces are warm, calm, and approachable, designed to feel welcoming rather than clinical. The goal is a room where a nervous or overstimulated kid can exhale.
- For teens: The teen-side spaces have a different feel: relaxed, comfortable, and designed with older kids in mind, so teens feel welcome and respected from the moment they walk in.
- Throughout: New paint, new flooring, and new furniture follow a single interior design concept built specifically for this population. Each age group gets a calmer, age-appropriate environment rather than one look stretched across every room. Spaces incorporate design elements for experiential learners and therapies to support the developmentally appropriate ways in which young people of different ages best engage. Even small choices like color, texture, and layout affect how regulated a young person feels.
A Space That Supports a Culture of Care
Environment shapes how safe people feel and ideally reflects and supports the values and goals of those within it, allowing therapeutic progress to be maximized. At Compass, care is built on warmth, respect, and meeting each young person where they are, and the refreshed center puts those values into the physical space. Compass’ redesigned center includes enhanced physical spaces for private individual meetings with psychiatrists, nurses and therapists, a range of developmentally tailored spaces for experiential activities and physical movement groups and breaks, spaces for families who are onsite, and more. That culture of care helps young people ease into their day, engage with their care team, and take part in treatment more openly.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Programs in Northbrook, IL
This renovation is part of Compass Health Center – Northbrook’s ongoing investment in its under-18 programs, which include Child & Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP), Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP), and After-School Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) for young people navigating anxiety, mood concerns, OCD, school anxiety and refusal, co-occurring substance use concerns and other conditions that benefit from more support than weekly therapy alone can provide.
Compass opened the reimagined center to the community at a public open house on November 5, 2026, giving families, referral partners, and neighbors a first look at the new space before it became part of daily program operations. For anyone who couldn’t make it, the space is now open.
Visit Compass Health Center – Northbrook
Compass Health Center – Northbrook is located at 60 Revere Drive, Suite 200, Northbrook, IL 60062. Families and referral partners interested in touring the Child & Adolescent Center or learning more about child and adolescent mental health programs in Northbrook can contact Compass Health Center directly online or by phone at 877-552-6672.
