ABOUT NORTHLAKE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SYSTEM
Located on a 300-acre park-like campus in Mandeville, La., opposite New Orleans from across Lake Pontchartrain, Northlake Behavioral Health System offers a full continuum of CARF-accredited evidence-based programs for adults and adolescents with severe to moderate psychiatric problems. These include acute inpatient care (for adults and teens), residential treatment (for teens), and outpatient treatment at various levels of intensity.
TREATMENT & ASSESSMENT
Northlake runs four separate programs for teens and adults. For those seeking immediate relief from a severe psychiatric issue, the organization partners with nearby Tulane University in providing acute (short-term) evidence-based care. The focus here is to successfully discharge clients to a lower level of care.
In some situations teens may need a more immersive, long-term treatment environment to overcome their behavioral, psychological, and substance-related problems. This being the case, teens may be recommended for Northlake’s co-ed Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF), where they’ll meet regularly for private and family therapy with a psychiatrist and receive medication management if necessary. Participants of the PRTF also attend an on-site school licensed through Louisiana’s Department of Education.
Northlake offers two outpatient options for individuals unable to commit to (or simply without the need or means for) residential care. The intensive outpatient (IOP) track consists of three hours of programming up to five days a week while the slightly more rigorous partial hospitalization program (PHP) is designed both as a step-down from inpatient care and as an alternative to it.
STAFF CREDENTIALS
Northlake is led by a board-certified psychiatrist and staffs a team of nurses, therapists, and technicians.
ACCOMMODATIONS & AMENITIES
Pictures published on Northlake’s official website show minimally-decorated shared bedrooms, several classrooms, a chapel, and a game room with ping-pong and foosball tables.
WHAT FRIENDS & FAMILY SAY
The single Best-rehabs.com survey respondent to date only had positive things to share on their loved one’s treatment experience. They gave Northlake five stars for its staff’s level of training and experience, its co-occurring treatment, its 12-step programming, its accommodations, and for the effectiveness of treatment itself. “Easy access to programs through referral,” they commented.
Feedback was more mixed on Google, where Northlake has a slightly below-average rating of 2.2 stars out of five based on 25 reviews. Satisfied parent Alayne called Northlake “THE exact place” her daughter “needed to be to get her mood stabilized” though Rebecca expressed concern over how the center handled her grandchild’s threats to harm himself and others. “DO NOT EVER, & I mean ever send your child or grandchild or anyone to this place,” she cautioned.[1]
FINANCING
According to its official brochure, Northlake accepts “most major insurance carriers.”
[1] https://goo.gl/qzBWaF