Chesapeake Center abruptly shutting down

[Anonymous]

My son has been a patient at the Chesapeake Center since he was 8 (now 13.) He sees a psychiatrist there for ADHD med management and recently started seeing a therapist associated with the center.

I just received an email from his psychiatrist saying that the center was shutting down as of 1/2/2026, and apparently providers were given hardly any notice (my kid just had a med management appointment on 12/30.) A portion of the email:

Due to unexpected and unforeseen circumstances, we regret to inform you that all providers at The Chesapeake Center were notified on 1/1/26 that our beloved Chesapeake Center, as an entity, will be abruptly closing, effective 1/2/26.

We are all truly disheartened to learn of this news and continuing to process what this means for our commitment to care for our patients.

While this change was abrupt and out of our control, we stand committed to honoring our obligation to care for our patients.

And then she goes on to offer some suggestions for continuing care.

I am just stunned by this -- Chesapeake Center seemed so large and thriving. But oddly enough, I had signed on to the patient portal this weekend because I wanted to download some statements for reimbursement, and for some reason there was no information on my child in the portal like there normally is. I assumed it was a glitch and made a mental note to call on Monday.

Has anyone heard further information on this?

[Anonymous]

I apologize, I realize I posted this in the wrong forum. Please ignore!

[Anonymous]

Jeff, if you are monitoring you can delete this and I will post this in the special needs forum.

[Anonymous]

I was a 1099 clinician at Chesapeake, and I am honestly still trying to process how this ended. The practice closed on 1/1, after all admin staff had been on a planned holiday and vacation break from 12/24–1/2. The practice closed before they even returned. I was not paid for any clinical services provided in December. From what I can tell, none of the contracted clinicians were paid, including therapists and psychologists. I am also a contractor and was not paid.

It was a family run, very profit driven practice, which I had mixed feelings about, but I truly believed it was more organized and ethically grounded than this.

What feels especially troubling is that clinicians were told we are responsible for managing our own patient transitions, and that there would be no clinic wide communication. All office staff were fired, and the CEO was also fired last week. This has felt deeply destabilizing and unsafe for patients, and it raises serious concerns about continuity of care. The clinicians themselves were generally excellent, and the front line admin team was also strong.

I am heartbroken for the staff who unexpectedly lost their jobs and, for many, their income, immediately after the holidays. They were hardworking, deeply committed to patients, and deserved far better than this.

Admin staff were salaried and paid, while essentially all clinicians were contractors. I do not think any clinicians were paid for December.

This has been a devastating situation to witness, both professionally and personally. It is not how mental health care should be handled, and it has been painful to see the impact on patients, clinicians, and staff alike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a 1099 clinician at Chesapeake, and I am honestly still trying to process how this ended. The practice closed on 1/1, after all admin staff had been on a planned holiday and vacation break from 12/24–1/2. The practice closed before they even returned. I was not paid for any clinical services provided in December. From what I can tell, none of the contracted clinicians were paid, including therapists and psychologists. I am also a contractor and was not paid.

It was a family run, very profit driven practice, which I had mixed feelings about, but I truly believed it was more organized and ethically grounded than this.

What feels especially troubling is that clinicians were told we are responsible for managing our own patient transitions, and that there would be no clinic wide communication. All office staff were fired, and the CEO was also fired last week. This has felt deeply destabilizing and unsafe for patients, and it raises serious concerns about continuity of care. The clinicians themselves were generally excellent, and the front line admin team was also strong.

I am heartbroken for the staff who unexpectedly lost their jobs and, for many, their income, immediately after the holidays. They were hardworking, deeply committed to patients, and deserved far better than this.

Admin staff were salaried and paid, while essentially all clinicians were contractors. I do not think any clinicians were paid for December.

This has been a devastating situation to witness, both professionally and personally. It is not how mental health care should be handled, and it has been painful to see the impact on patients, clinicians, and staff alike.

Thank you for writing this - it's shocking but also good to learn some of the behind the scenes of an event that is having tremendous repercussions.

[Anonymous]

The owner of the practice and founder Dr nadeau is in charge of the closure. There still has not been a center wide announcement to patients nor is there an internal plan for record access or retention. The billing is a mess - patients can’t get statements or see their accounts. The founder and owner hired her own daughter and son in law to manage the business (daughter was ceo son in law was the HR director). We had no clue this was happening and there are many unanswered emails and calls that we cannot access. Patients were left with no therapy appointments, testing appts (including results appts) or refills. They never treated the staff well so I guess it should come as no surprise that management doesn’t care about the patients either. It’s all about the money. Kathleen’s granddaughter worked there too and did nothing. Who knows how much money that family was being paid by people seeing health care. I loved the people I worked with other than management and the providers were all solid. They are all scrambling to maintain care since Chesapeake threw all of the patients out bc they ran out of money.

[Anonymous]

PP, could you repost on the main thread?

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1307981.page