ABOUT PRAIRIE CENTER
Located in Champaign, Ill., the Prairie Center is a nonprofit rehabilitation center offering inpatient treatment to adults struggling with substance abuse issues. Prairie Center also provides an intensive outpatient program (IOP) and traditional outpatient program (OP) for adults and adolescents in the eastern Illinois communities of Urbana and Danville. Medical detoxification services are available on-site through the inpatient program in Champaign.
TREATMENT & ASSESSMENT
To determine the most appropriate level of care and an individualized treatment program, clients participate in an initial assessment upon admission. Typically, the length of the inpatient program lasts between 30 to 60 days. During inpatient care, the facility offers a range of evidence-based therapies, including individual and group counseling sessions. Clients also participate in a range of experiential therapies, such as yoga, art, and recreational therapy, as well as attend psychoeducational classes on addiction, anger management, social skills, and relapse prevention.
Prairie Center’s programming introduces clients to the principles and practices of 12-Step. Clients may attend on-site meetings, study fellowship literature, and perform associated “step-work.” Women who’ve experienced trauma or abuse may also attend Seeking Safety meetings. Nutritional counseling and family therapy is also offered, as is HIV testing and education. For clients transitioning from prison back into the community, the Prairie Center opens its doors as a halfway house through its Federal Bureau of Prisons program.
Once a client completed inpatient care, clinicians may encourage alumni to transition into one of its outpatient programs to continue treatment. Outpatient-based counseling and educational groups are held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays.
STAFF CREDENTIALS
Along with a medical director, staff physicians, and a 24-hour staff of nurses who oversee medical care during inpatient care, the Prairie Center employs a multidisciplinary team of licensed social workers, certified alcohol and drug counselors, and support staff.
ACCOMMODATIONS & AMENITIES
A repurposed Elks Club building, the residential facility is tucked inside a charming Tudor-style house in downtown Champaign. Men and women live on separate floors and share modest bedrooms. The house offers a spacious common living room with a fireplace, on-site laundry facilities, as well as a dining room where all meals are served.
WHAT ALUMNI SAY
The two alumni polled by Best-rehabs.com at the time of this writing provided mixed opinions of The Prairie Center. The alumni offered ratings of three and four out five stars for the treatment staff’s level of experience and training. “Counselors care about your treatment…” one anonymous alum wrote. Both alumni provided three-star ratings for the facility’s treatment effectiveness, accommodations and amenities, and admin/discharge procedures and planning. When asked, on a scale from one to five, whether they would recommend treatment at The Prairie Center, the two respondents gave a three- and a four-star rating. “Advocating twelve step programs as the only solution is dangerous,” one alum added; however, they both provided five-star ratings for the program’s affordability.
Submitting a rating of two stars for the facility’s ability to treat co-occurring disorders, one alum raised concerns about the prison program and court-ordered clients. “Many of the clients at the Prairie Center are court ordered, and do not seem to care about getting sober. It would be nice to attend a facility where more clients were self-referred,” they wrote.
On Praire Center’s Facebook page, which the facility can manage, The Prairie Center has an average rating of 4.7 out of five stars across nine reviews.
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WHAT FRIENDS & FAMILY SAY
The sole loved one polled by Best-rehabs.com to date offered a more favorable opinion, submitting four-star ratings for the facility’s exercise and leisure provisions and the level of family participation in treatment. “It is a good facility with caring staff that really try to help you,” the loved one wrote.
WHAT STAFF SAY
The two staff members polled by Best-rehabs.com to date were somewhat critical of The Prairie Center. Offering ratings of three stars for job satisfaction and two stars for its ability to treat co-occurring disorders, Kathy felt the facility struggled with understaffing. “The medical area of the facility is only staffed with 2 people. That means they have to work many days in a row,” she wrote.
Sharing the sentiment of the alumni polled, another staff member also criticized the facility’s court-ordered treatment policies. “To many people coming in from the jail system just trying to dodge prison,” they wrote. However, the staff member did offer four-star ratings for the treatment staff’s level of experience and training.
FINANCING
The Prairie Center accepts some private insurance plans and Medicaid. Services are offered on a sliding scale and the facility also provides payment plan options through third-party lenders for clients who qualify.