About NOAH
NOAH - A Different Kind of Hospital
“Professional help that troubled people need...loving care that all people deserve.”
Other hospitals in this area have aggressive advertising campaigns on radio and TV, in print and on billboards. This hospital has such a low profile that few people realize that it exists.
The New Orleans Adolescent Hospital Community System of Care (NOAH) does not look like other hospitals. The main building sits on large tree-shaded grounds and is surrounded by a complex of houses and other buildings. The patient rooms are cubicles with low beds, clothing storage, and built-in desks. Posters, pictures and sometimes hand-lettered signs personalize the cubicles.
You don’t see doors labeled nuclear medicine, or intensive care, and you don’t see high tech equipment. There are rooms with labels such as occupational therapy or music therapy. In them you may find tables and supplies for painting ceramics and a kiln for firing them. There may be a piano, trumpets, and drums. There are classrooms with the usual large alphabets marching high over blackboards, globes, maps, desks, books, and supplies.
From nine to three on weekdays, the classrooms are the center of activity for our young patients, although therapy sessions are going on throughout the hospital. After three and on holidays the hospital looks even less typical. Outdoors, there may be softball players in action, children playing on the swing set, patients swimming in the pool, or groups lunching at the picnic tables.
This is a hospital? It is, and it is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals and by the Health Care Finance Administration. It delivers acute psychiatric inpatient care to children and adolescents, ages 6 to 17, who have severe mental illnesses. NOAH also provides outpatient care to youth through its Crisis Intervention Services and three community clinics. In the near future, NOAH plans to open satellite mental health centers to serve the children/teens of St. Bernard and New Orleans East.
After Hurricane Katrina, NOAH opened two acute psychiatric inpatient units for adults. In addition, NOAH operates the Partners in Community Care (PCT) Program that provides outpatient services for adults with severe and persistent mental illness to help reduce the frequency of hospitalization and crisis situations.
This hospital doesn’t perform tonsillectomies or appendectomies, doesn’t set broken arms or legs. It does treat schizophrenia, manic depression, behavior disorders and developmentally disabling disorders. Suicidal and homicidal feelings, hallucinations and violent behaviors are no respecters of age. Some of the patients may have problems rooted in physical or sexual abuse.
This is NOAH, located at the foot of State Street, in what was once the United States Public Health Service Hospital. It is operated by the State of Louisiana, and has been here since 1981. You are not alone if this is news to you. There is little publicity about our patients as patient confidentiality is carefully preserved. NOAH’s Friends, the non-profit volunteer group who assist the hospital, don’t use photos of patients in their publicity about benefits and special events.
Pictures capture attention and raise consciousness about facilities, so this one really has not come to public notice. That’s too bad, because this is an excellent hospital, and it fills an enormous need. Psychiatric care is expensive, and even families who can afford health insurance soon find that they have reached the cap most policies place on coverage of mental health disorders. For families with no insurance, there isn’t much care available. Many of NOAH’s patients are indigent and some are in the custody of the state.
A person who comes to NOAH is evaluated and diagnosed, and is treated with evidence based psychiatric techniques. Teams of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, recreation therapists, music therapists, occupational therapists, special education teachers, and dieticians carry out the treatment plan developed for each patient. Also available for patients are medical, laboratory and pharmacy services.
Special education classes are provided year-round through the services of Special School District #1.
If you would like more information about NOAH, please call the main hospital number at
504-897-3400.
A Brief History
The campus of the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital (17.2 acres) was originally part of the Fortier Plantation and was the first place sugar was successfully granulated. The plantation was also known throughout the state for its orange orchards and artichoke fields. Three original plantation structures still remain on the site: (1) the brick wall that surrounds the hospital grounds, (2) the Plantation House, and (3) the Overseer’s House. It is reputed that John James Audubon occupied the Overseer’s House intermittently while making studies of Louisiana birds.
The present site of NOAH was acquired by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) in 1870, having previously been leased by the War Department when it was known as the Sedgewich Military Hospital.
The main red brick hospital building was constructed in 1931 at a cost of $2,500,000 and served as New Orleans’ fourth Marine (PHS) Hospital. The New Orleans PHS Hospital was a 400-bed general hospital and primarily provided services to American seamen.
The federal government closed the USPHS hospital in 1981. With the support of Governor Dave Treen, a plan was devised for Louisiana to establish a much-needed psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents in the New Orleans area. Act 40 of the Special Session of the Louisiana Legislature of 1981 allowed the governor to accept the donation of the USPHS in New Orleans (20 buildings – valued at approximately $30,000,000) for this purpose. Governor Treen entrusted operation of the 24-hour inpatient facility to the Department of Health and Human Resources through its Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
On December 1, 1981, the evolutionary process of transforming a general medical/surgical hospital into a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents began. NOAH’s first patients were admitted four months later on April 5, 1982.
Three inpatient units are currently in operation – a child and adolescent unit (ages 6-17) and two adult units (ages 18 and up.) After Hurricane Katrina, the hospital expanded its services to include outpatient mental health care for adults. NOAH currently operates the following outpatient services for children and teens: three mental health clinics, a transition program, the Assertive Community Care program, and the Crisis Intervention Service. In addition, NOAH operates the Partners in Community Care (PCT) Program for adult patients who need outpatient services to reduce hospitalization and crisis situations. NOAH is presently administered by Richard Kramer, Chief Executive Officer. Clinical programming is under the direction of Martin Drell, M.D., Clinical Director.
NOAH serves primarily youth and adults from the southeastern portion of the state, although the hospital can admit patients from throughout Louisiana. Services provided include individual, group, family therapy and case management, parent education, and special education classes year-round through the services of Special School District #1 housed on the hospital grounds. Each patient has an individualized treatment plan with the goal of restoring function and health and enhancing skills to live a productive life within the community.
More NOAH Info
Department of Health and Hospitals
Office of Mental Health
Metropolitan Human Services District