Families in Palm Beach Gardens with a child who needs occupational therapy, speech therapy, counseling and a psychiatrist no longer have to drive to four offices to get them. NorthStar Day, a new day treatment program for neurodivergent children ages 5 to 12, has opened at 4750 East Park Drive, Suite 110, and it puts the whole care team in one building, working from one plan.

What it actually is

NorthStar Day bills itself as the first multidisciplinary day treatment program for neurodivergent children in the Southeast. In plain terms, it is a place a child goes for the day, the way they would go to school, except the day is built around therapy. The program works with children on the autism spectrum and children with ADHD, developmental delays, sensory processing differences, anxiety, mood disorders, childhood trauma and trouble with behavioral regulation. Most of the kids it serves, the program says, arrive with more than one of those at once.

There are two levels. The full-day program runs Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and is meant for children whose needs are more than a weekly therapy appointment can handle. An after-school program runs weekdays from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. for children who can stay in their regular classroom but need more support than they are getting. A child can start in the full-day program and step down to after-school as they improve, and then on to ordinary outpatient care, with the same team the whole way.

Why one building matters

Any parent who has done this knows the problem NorthStar is built around. The occupational therapist is in one plaza, the speech therapist across town, the child psychiatrist booked months out in another city, and the parent ends up as the only person who knows what all of them are doing. NorthStar's approach is to put occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, family therapy, education, case management, nutrition and psychiatry under one roof. The clinicians see each other in the hallway, and the full team meets every week about every child.

Parents are part of that plan from the first week. The program reviews progress with each family monthly, and it measures success partly by how well routines hold at home: smoother mornings, shorter meltdowns, a school day finished without a call from the office. Length of stay is not fixed. A child stays as long as the team and the family agree it is helping.

What a day looks like

The day is designed so that calming down comes before anything is asked of a child. Kids are greeted by name, get a short menu of settling choices, and then gather for a movement meeting where the group previews what is ahead. Visual schedules sit at a child's eye level, and transitions are announced rather than sprung. From there, each child rotates through therapy, small groups and learning time on an individual schedule, so no two children's days are the same. The building includes a sensory gym, separate therapy rooms, low-stimulation group spaces and an outdoor nature space.

The clinical work draws on a set of established approaches, including cognitive behavioral therapy, skills work for handling big emotions, the play-based Floortime method, social skills training and family systems therapy. Children get the ones that fit them rather than all of them by default.

Who is behind it

NorthStar Day was co-founded by two psychologists, Dr. Brandi Rials and Dr. Kelly Everson. Rials is also a co-founder of Palm Beach Behavioral Health and Wellness, which handles psychological, autism and ADHD testing for families who do not yet have a diagnosis. Everson has worked with people on the autism spectrum since 2006 and often sits in on school education plan meetings with the families she treats.

The chief executive is James McManus, a mental health counselor who has worked in behavioral health since 2007 and who founded a Palm Beach Gardens residential program for adolescents in 2014. The medical side is led by Dr. Jonathan Stevens, a child and adolescent psychiatrist who trained at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital in Boston and previously led child and adolescent psychiatry at the Menninger Clinic in Houston. Having a child psychiatrist with that background in the same building as the therapists is the piece many families find hardest to line up on their own.

How to start

Families do not need a diagnosis to call. The admissions line is (561) 781-9400, and the program says intake calls are returned within the hour and that a child can begin as soon as the next day if the fit is right. NorthStar works with most major insurance plans, checks benefits the same day, and also accepts private pay, including payment plans worked out at intake. In-person tours run during program hours on weekdays and take 30 to 45 minutes, so parents see the building while children are in it. Details are on NorthStar Day's website.

Palm Beach Gardens is the first location, and the program says more South Florida sites are planned.

What it means for families here

For a parent in the Gardens, Jupiter or North Palm Beach who has spent the last year driving between appointments and relaying notes from one specialist to the next, this is a different option close to home: one door, one team, one plan, and a schedule that ends early enough for the after-school crowd. If you know a family in that spot, this is the one to pass along.