In 1978, three talented line staff from a mental health hospital in Minneapolis started Northwest Passage, Ltd.  Wanting to provide a more homelike and individualized service to children, the residential services started out small and have grown into four unique residential programs.  After receiving several requests to provide transitional services within the community, in 1994, Northwest Passage developed its first children’s mental health day treatment program.  Since that time, the organization has stayed true to its belief in children, staff, and quality programs.

 The guiding vision was of a system that provided a continuum of mental health treatment programs in communities throughout Wisconsin.  Great strides have been made toward realization of that vision with the creation of multiple programs offering services to a diverse population over a large geographic area:

• Northwest Counseling provides conventional, fee-for-service, community-based outpatient mental health programming in Frederic, Wisconsin.  The professional staff delivers behavioral health services to adults, children and families.
• Northwest Journey  provides children’s mental health day treatment.  Our sites serve over 200 children and families daily in 11 communities throughout Wisconsin.  The first program was started in 1997, and at the time represented the first full-day day treatment program in the state.   It is a goal of the staff of each Northwest Journey facility to play a valued role in the larger mental health treatment network within the community in which they function.
• Northwest Connections includes telephone and mobile services for persons experiencing a crisis within contracting counties.   NWCGC began providing this service in 2000, but further developed the services in January of 2005.