Carrier Clinic, a behavioral healthcare system, has been a trusted source of compassionate help and supportive healing for patients and their families since we opened our doors in 1910.

One of the largest independent, non profit behavioral healthcare facilities in New Jersey, Carrier Clinic specializes in psychiatric and substance abuse addiction treatment. We provide a complete array of expert care and education for adolescents, adults, and older adults on the inpatient and residential levels. Outpatient services are provided for ECT treatment and drug abuse addiction.

Ours is a safe, compassionate and respectful environment, set on a beautiful 100+ acre country setting at the foothills of the Sourland Mountains, in centrally-located Belle Mead, NJ. Our caring, supportive staff is among the best in their respective fields, all driven by the similar goal of returning each individual back to their family, workplace, community, and the things they enjoy.

Residential Treatment For Adolescents

The East Mountain Youth Lodge (EMYL) on the Carrier Clinic campus is a residential treatment program for adolescents ages 13-18 with psychiatric and/or emotional difficulties. The program provides comprehensive 24-hour clinical, therapeutic, and educational treatment.

East Mountain Youth Lodge Mission

We understand that our residents are survivors not only of psychiatric, learning, and emotional difficulties, but often abuse, neglect, and violence as well. As such, they have developed coping strategies such as substance abuse, running away, defying rules and authority figures, even attempting suicide.

As part of our mission to create, promote and maintain a healing environment, we invite teens to put aside their past survival skills and learn new ways of coping and self-expression. We reinforce these newly-acquired skills with individual and group therapy, family education, therapeutic recreation, and day-to-day interactions with highly-trained staff.

The aim is to nurture emotional healing, provide social skill acquisition, and prepare our residents for a future in a less restrictive setting. Families are involved in each individual’s treatment from day one to ensure the opportunity to meet their four basic needs: Belonging, Mastery, Independence and Generosity.

Our Facility

In an effort to individualize treatment and maximize the effectiveness of therapies, our young people are served in four distinct residential settings.

<img class="alignleft wp-image-163 size-full" src="https://carrierclinicorg-xt0mxgicgroc.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/bear.gif" alt="East Mountain Youth Lodge, treatment program for adolescents" width="30" height="30" />The Bear Lodge is our treatment program for a population of young men struggling with a variety of co-occurring disorders.

<img class="alignleft wp-image-164 size-full" src="https://carrierclinicorg-xt0mxgicgroc.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/eagle.gif" alt="East Mountain Youth Lodge, treatment program for adolescents" width="30" height="30" /> The Eagle Lodge is our program serving a population of mostly dually-diagnosed adolescent females who exhibit more oppositional/conduct disordered behaviors with either co-existing substance abuse disorders and/or emotional instability.

<img class="alignleft wp-image-165 size-full" src="https://carrierclinicorg-xt0mxgicgroc.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/butterfly.gif" alt="East Mountain Youth Lodge, treatment program for adolescents" width="30" height="30" />The Butterfly/Dragonfly Lodge serves adolescent females and males, more so those who present a more intense need for mental health treatment to help them overcome various psychiatric crises in their lives. Most have a history of multiple hospitalizations for unsafe behaviors, and need to recover from various depressive/mood disorders and self-harmful behaviors.

<img class="alignleft wp-image-168 size-full" src="https://carrierclinicorg-xt0mxgicgroc.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/swan.gif" alt="East Mountain Youth Lodge, treatment program for adolescents" width="30" height="30" /> The Swan Lodge, our newest program, is a 10-bed coed IRTS (Intensive Residential Treatment Service) program that serves young people with the highest psychiatric acuity, who’ve been placed out of the home.

Our Residents

Our residents include males and females age 13-18 with psychiatric, emotional and behavioral difficulties, most of whom have a history of failed placements elsewhere, and who have experienced multiple traumas such as sexual abuse, abandonment and loss. Many residents have been previously diagnosed with Conduct Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Impulse Control Disorder, Substance Abuse, and various other psychotic and personality disorders. Their behavioral histories could include property destruction, violence, anti-social behavior, stealing, defiance of authority, poor school attendance, illegal activity, running away and drug use/dealing.

Our Programs

All programs at provide 24-hour intensive residential services plus afford access to the full array of an adolescent continuum on campus, including a special education school program and an Adolescent Inpatient Unit if needed for acute crisis stabilization. East Mountain Youth Lodge provides individual, group and family therapy, psychiatric, and nursing services as well as education, recreation and adventure-based treatment, all aimed at building our resident’s strengths, coping mechanisms and preparing them to be successful in less restrictive settings.

We offer a comprehensive family treatment component, addiction treatment and volunteer experiences available to our young people as well. On the grounds, residents have the use of a full indoor gym, an outdoor in-ground pool, a softball field, tennis, basketball and volley ball courts, a game room, chapel, art room, hiking trails and a low ropes adventure treatment site. Specialized programs such as equine therapy further encourage teens to get in touch with their feelings and emotions, so they can better understand themselves and begin to heal.

Our Staff

The East Mountain Youth Lodge provides one direct care staff member for every four to five adolescents. Our clinical team includes a Board-certified psychiatrist, licensed clinical social worker, registered nurse, substance abuse counselor and residential counselor.

Youth Treatment Services

• Individual, family and group therapy with licensed clinical social workers
• Psychiatric consultation and medication monitoring
• 24-hour therapeutic milieu including Specialized addiction treatment
• NA/AA meetings in the community
• Daily social skills training groups
• Education at Carrier Clinic’s East Mountain Day School
• Pre-vocational training
• Individualized case management and discharge planning
• Physical fitness program includes camping, canoeing, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, trips to the beach, lakes, amusement parks and sporting events
• Year-round recreational activities are geared to expose residents to appropriate social interactions and cultural programs such as music, arts and crafts
• Adventure-based counseling
• Full Value Contract approach, peer intervention and group accountability
• Crisis intervention

Continuum of Care

As part of Carrier Clinic’s full continuum of care, residents have access to a wide array of additional services:

• Inpatient Care
• Lab Services
• Physical Therapy
• East Mountain School

Terms and Definitions

Stress: A feeling of tension or strain that can be caused by many different things, including the loss of a loved one or your job, health problems, being overloaded with things to do each day, etc. Too much stress can sometimes cause various physical and emotional changes, and requires treatment.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: GAD is a condition where, for at least six months and without reason, you are worried, anxious or nervous, much more than is warranted for the event causing the worry or anxiety. While no sure cause is known, GAD usually appears after physical or emotional stress.

Bipolar Disorder: Also called manic depressive illness, this is a long-term mood disorder that causes mild to severe changes in mood and behavior. People with bipolar disorder have mood swings-sometimes you will feel manic (overly excited and active); other times very depressed (deeply sad). You can also feel both at once (mixed bipolar state).

Schizophrenia: A long-term mental disease that affects how your brain works. It can change how you think, feel and behave, affect your ability to know what is real and not real, cause your thoughts to be unclear, even jump from one topic to another. Delusions, hallucinations, disordered thinking and speech, emotional unresponsiveness are a few of the symptoms.

Schizoaffective Disorder: A mental illness that may change how you think, feel, and act around others. You may have symptoms of psychosis (loss of reality), along with symptoms of a mood problem, such as being depressed, manic or both. SAD is a long-term disease that could be caused by an imbalance in brain chemicals (neurotransmitters).

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: PTSD is a condition that occurs after suffering or facing a traumatic (hurtful) event that brings you much pain or sorrow. You may continue to feel helpless after the event, which may even make you think you will get hurt or die. These experiences are often repeated or re-lived, affecting your daily activities, work and relationships.