Lakeview Center is tackling Northwest Florida’s adolescent mental health crisis head-on with the launch of a new Teen Intensive Outpatient Program designed specifically to meet young people where they are.
“Adolescent care is such a vital part of our community,” explains Dustin Perry, Director of Residential Services at Lakeview Center. “The way that we can prevent treatment with adults is by hitting ‘em when they’re teenagers, when they’re trying to learn who they are and what they’re becoming in life.”
Meeting Teens on Their Terms
Unlike traditional therapy models, the program operates three evenings per week for three hours each session, carefully scheduled around school, sports, and family life. This intentional timing reflects Lakeview’s commitment to accessibility.
- “We really wanted to be able to meet the kids where they were at,” Perry notes. “We don’t want to take them out of school. School’s so important. If they play some sports after school, we don’t want to take them out of that.”
The evening schedule also creates opportunities for family involvement, allowing parents to participate in services after dinner—a crucial component often missing from adolescent mental health treatment.
Comprehensive and Flexible
The program tackles the full spectrum of issues facing today’s teenagers: anxiety, depression, substance misuse, vaping, and school bullying. With group sizes capped at six to eight participants, the environment remains intimate enough for meaningful sharing while preventing the self-consciousness that can emerge in larger groups.
- Perhaps most importantly, Lakeview has streamlined the typical intensive outpatient timeline from 10-12 weeks down to six to eight weeks. “We thought about six weeks is enough time to engage the population and really get to the meat of the issue and move on,” Perry explains, acknowledging that teenagers need programs that fit their lives.
Financial obstacles won’t prevent access. “If you’ve got Medicaid, if you’ve got no insurance, you can just walk right in, and we’ll get you taken care of,” Perry emphasizes. This commitment to universal access addresses a critical gap in community resources.
Prevention Over Intervention
The timing couldn’t be better. “We’re making all this headway with the opiate crisis. We’re starting to see a reduction in deaths. We’re making headway with getting information out about mental health in the community,” Perry says. “If we don’t hit the kids now, those kids are going to be adults that have these same problems that we’re trying to prevent.”
- With decades of experience running intensive outpatient programs for adults and close collaboration with Escambia County Drug Court since the early 1990s, Lakeview brings proven expertise to adolescent care—filling a void in accessible teen mental health services that the community desperately needs.
To register, call 850-469-3500.
