About Us

A Compassionate Legacy Transformed

Lakewood Center emerged from the La Amistad Foundation, established in 1970 as a sanctuary for adolescents grappling with severe mental illness. Originally a halfway house, our evolution into Lakewood Center in 1989 marked a strategic shift towards providing unwavering, high-quality long-term care for adults battling chronic mental health conditions. Rooted in this journey of transformation, we stand today as a beacon of support—a compassionate community dedicated to nurturing the well-being of adults in need of enduring mental health care.

La Amistad Foundation, doing business as Lakewood Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3).

Lakewood Center is a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the American Residential Treatment Association (ARTA).

"It encourages our hearts that we have our son with caring people."

Our Treatment Philosophy

Acknowledge

the needs of our residents and their families

Respect

each and every resident as a whole person, looking beyond their illness

Support

our residents by providing a therapeutic community with services


Supportive Mental Health Treatment Services

Lakewood Center is a long-term residential treatment community for adults ages 21 and older diagnosed with serious mental illness. Our program is designed to support residents long term, offering an indefinite length of stay. While we require a six-month minimum, on average, residents call Lakewood Center home for 12 years, some residents have been with us for over 30.

We offer 24-hour support and supervision with a multidisciplinary team providing a wide range of psychiatric care services along with recreational opportunities, wellness programs, and a therapeutic work program. Our programs vary in the degree of structure and supervision to meet the specific emotional, social, and physical needs of each resident.

Care Coordination

Our multi-disciplinary clinical team includes Master’s Level Clinicians that works with each resident to develop a personalized treatment plan. Care coordination can include life skills development, budgeting assistance, coordination of external doctors and other appointments, correspondence with families, and streamlining continuous care with external treatment providers.

Therapeutic Programming & Services

Our therapeutic programming and services include supportive counseling, medication education, monitoring, and education, crisis management, psychoeducational programming, daily therapeutic groups, meaningful daily activities, and health education with a registered nurse.

Medication Management

Our Medication Management process assists residents by observing self-administration of medication, performing regular medication audits, collaborating with the pharmacy, and assistance with planning for offsite self-administration of medication. Our staff members maintain communication with the psychiatrists, primary care doctors, and specialists between visits as needed for continuity of care.

Therapeutic Work Program

This voluntary program enables residents to pursue meaningful work on and off campus, improving their quality of life. It provides residents with purpose, responsibility, and increased self-esteem. Residents learn social skills and experience the benefits of teamwork. The Job Club is open to all residents and focuses on teaching skills necessary for success.

Social & Recreational

We offer many opportunities on campus and off for our residents to have meaningful social and recreational engagement. In a supported environment, residents can participate in recreational activities such as fitness classes, leisure pool time, expressive arts, animal assisted therapy, music appreciation, games nights, movie nights in our on-campus cinema, pontoon boat rides, and coffee chat.

Supervised Community Living

Our supervised community living program allows residents to transition to off-campus living and participate in their own individualized daily treatment plan, while receiving support to manage their lives independently in the community. We do not currently admit directly to this level of care.


Contact us today to learn more

Our program does not require a referral. We welcome self-referrals, and inquiries from families, physicians, therapists, consultants, and other mental health professionals.
For more information, please visit our Admissions page.

Meet The Team

Sarah Summey

CEO

Pam Lee

Human Resources Director

Marlene Sands

Development Director

Shirley Armstrong

Program Director

Allie Bronstein

Heatlh Services Director

Louis Walker

Plant and Safety Director

Gabrielle McKenzie

Food Service Associate

Employee of the Month

Our employee of the month is nominated by a vote of all the Lakewood staff with a comment about why they are nominating their coworker. Here are some of the accolades Gabrielle's coworkers gave with this month's nomination.
CONGRATULATIONS, Gabrielle, EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH!

Testimonials

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