The Carrier Clinic, an addiction treatment center in Belle Mead, is merging with Hackensack Meridian Health, a network that operates 16 hospitals in New Jersey.
“We are writing a new chapter for the treatment of behavioral health and substance abuse disorders as we integrate Carrier’s proven services into our network’s robust behavioral health care,’’ said Robert C. Garrett, co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. “We must continue to truly integrate behavioral health into health care and expand treatment options as our state battles an opioid epidemic that has claimed too many lives and devastated so many families.’’
The two organizations reviewed the merger for five months before committing to it in early August. The merger must now undergo regulatory review with various governing agencies, including the state Attorney General and the New Jersey Departments of Health and Education.
Carrier Clinic’s home in Belle Mead is a 100-acre campus that provides short-term, acute care hospitalization for psychiatric illness and substance abuse for adolescents aged 12 to 18, and treatment for adults 18 and older. Carrier Clinic’s campus includes a licensed 281-bed inpatient psychiatric hospital; a licensed 40-bed inpatient and outpatient detox and recovery facility; East Mountain Youth Lodge, which can house up to 91 teenage residents; and East Mountain School, a fully-accredited school for 120 7th to 12th graders affected by behavioral and psychiatric disorders.
Carrier Clinic, 252 Route 601 (Blawenburg Road), Box 147, Belle Mead 08502. 800-933-3579. Donald Parker, CEO. www.carrierclinic.org.
