Former employee of Landmark comes forward with his experience working at the company

MISHAWAKA, Ind - A local addiction treatment center, Praxis facility, is still under fire after repeated emergency incidents leading to a formal complaint filed by St. Joseph County to state regulators.  

This comes after three patients died at the facility in the past month and a 28-year-old patient overdosed just last week. 

More and more people are coming forward with their experiences as patients or employees at Praxis. 

One insider told ABC57 that the company appeared to be more concerned about making money than helping addicts recover. 

Praxis Landmark recovery on Bodnar Boulevard in Mishawaka, takes in some of the most difficult patients, those on Medicaid, without resources to spend on their own addiction treatment. 

Praxis opened in August of last year and St. Joseph County police say they have responded to 217 emergency calls to the facility in just 192 days this year.  

The former Search Engine Optimization specialist for the company, Jason Brown, said it was all about the number of patients. 

“It was all about head count, let's get the head count up, head count up, head count up, and it became profits over people,” said Brown.  

Due to the ongoing investigations, Praxis has announced major changes to its top-level staff, parting ways with the facility's executive director and the nursing director.  

Brown, whose job was to make Praxis look good in internet searches, said they tried to combat negative online reviews from both patients and former workers. 

“A lot of complaints on Glassdoor started coming in, and they asked us during every single meeting each month with all staff included to start posting Glassdoor reviews to offset the negative ones so they can continue to keep hiring,” said Brown. 

“How are we expecting people to trust to get help to get treatment, when these are the stories being told?" asked Joanne Cogdell, the CEO of Naxos Neighbors.  

Cogdell specializes in drug overdose prevention and said the negative experiences former Praxis patients and employees are telling will have lasting impacts on an already vulnerable population. 

As of now, Praxis released a statement saying that they have stopped accepting new patients until staff meet their high standards.