Comprehensive Substance Use Assessments in Minnesota
NorthStar Regional completes the comprehensive assessment in Minnesota that every next step in treatment depends on. One structured conversation covers substance use, health, mental health, living situation, and goals, in about an hour. The result is a clear level-of-care recommendation, and our team also helps you start the Medical Assistance or Behavioral Health Fund eligibility process. Assessments happen at admission to any of our programs, on their own at our Shakopee clinic, or by secure video statewide. Courts, counties, and employers often require one. Let us know what documentation they need when you schedule.
The appointment at a glance
About an hour
One conversation, no performance required
Built into Admission
Any level of care, or on its own by appointment
Opens funding
Behavioral Health Fund and Medical Assistance eligibility runs through it
Telehealth
Secure video assessment anywhere in Minnesota
Licensed Treatment Programs
Founded 2015
Addiction and mental health care in one system
Multiple Campuses
Across the Twin Cities metro
MN Department of Health: Licensed
MN Department of Human Services: Licensed
Understanding this service
What a Comprehensive Assessment Decides
A comprehensive assessment is one structured talk with a qualified provider like NorthStar Regional. It covers your substance use history, health, mental health, living situation, and goals. This evaluation used to mean weeks of waiting on a county. Now we complete it ourselves, fast. The result is what every next step depends on: a clear recommendation for the kind and amount of care that fits.
It can also open funding. Behavioral Health Fund and Medical Assistance eligibility runs through the assessment.
Is this right for you?
Signs It's Time for an Assessment
An assessment isn’t a commitment to treatment. It is an answer to the question you have been asking yourself. Here are the moments when it is worth the hour.
A County, Court, or Employer Asked for an Evaluation
Courts, counties, probation officers, and employers often require a substance use evaluation. We can explain the documentation they require when you schedule.
You Can't Tell If It's a Problem or a Phase
The answer to “is my drinking normal?” shouldn’t come from the internet at 2am. One structured hour settles it with a professional.
You Need Funding to Open
Medical Assistance and Behavioral Health Fund coverage run through this assessment. It is the step that gets treatment paid for, not just planned.
Mental Health and Substance Use Are Tangled
You can’t tell anymore which one is driving the other: the depression or the drinking, the anxiety or the pills. The assessment looks at both on purpose.
Treatment Didn't Hold Last Time
Relapse after treatment often means the level of care was wrong, not that you failed. A fresh assessment finds the level that fits this time.
Someone You Love Needs a Starting Point
You know they need help and have no idea what kind. This appointment turns “something has to happen” into an actual plan.
Any one of these is reason enough to call. There’s no preparation, no performance, and no obligation on the other side of it: just an answer and, if you want it, a plan. If you’re calling for someone else, start with our guide for parents or our guide for spouses and partners.
How It Helps
One Assessment for Addiction and Mental Health
The assessment looks at substance use and mental health together. Finding the right placement means seeing the whole picture: the drinking and the depression, the meth and the trauma. It is the first step of dual diagnosis care, before treatment even starts.
For Addiction
Every substance we treat is explained on its own page, from the first assessment through sober living.
For Mental Health
At designated NorthStar Regional programs, these conditions are treated together with addiction as co-occurring care, in one plan. Standalone mental health treatment, no substance use diagnosis needed, is available through our outpatient clinic in Shakopee.
What to expect
What the Appointment Looks Like
About an hour, one talk, and nothing to perform.
Five Minutes of Setup
Call, and we schedule fast. At admission it happens with no extra steps. Bring ID and insurance if you have them, but neither is required to be seen.
A Structured Interview
Substance use history, health, mental health, living situation, and supports. A trained assessor asks the questions, and you answer as much as applies. We ask only what we need.
The Recommendation
You leave with a level-of-care recommendation. If needed, funding eligibility is started. And if you choose NorthStar Regional, you leave with a start date, often same day or next day.
Where You'll Find It at NorthStar Regional
Where Assessments Happen
Built into admission, or standalone when you just need the answer.
Standalone
Outpatient Mental Health Clinic | Shakopee
A scheduled assessment visit. No commitment to treatment is implied.
At admission
Every NorthStar Regional Program
The assessment is part of admission at every level of care, and your treatment plan is built from what it finds.
Treatment Options
Explore Our Addiction Therapies and Services
Recovery rarely rests on one method. Below are the addiction and mental health therapies and services at NorthStar Regional. Each has its own page. Your comprehensive assessment, the full evaluation that sets your plan, decides which mix of therapies your plan starts with.
The therapies
The standalone services
Who's behind the work
About NorthStar Regional
NorthStar Regional is Minnesota’s treatment system built around access: alcohol and drug treatment centers and mental health care across multiple Twin Cities metro locations. Founded in 2015, we provide one connected continuum: detox (withdrawal management), residential, outpatient, mental health, and a sober housing pathway. Separate men’s and women’s campuses, co-occurring care at designated programs, and no faith requirement set us apart. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and if you are uninsured, our admissions team helps you through enrollment. A person can walk in with nothing and leave with everything they need to build a life.
Paying for Care
Insurance and Payment Options
Our team helps review your benefits and handles the paperwork with you. If you have no insurance, we help walk you through enrolling for benefits. County case managers, probation officers, hospitals, and crisis teams send clients to us because, in their words, we just get it done.
Insurance and State Funding
Commercial plans, Medical Assistance (Medicaid), county placements, and private pay. We verify benefits and handle the paperwork with you.
We Are Here to Help
We help review your benefits, find your right starting point, and schedule you for the same day or the next whenever possible. Then we pick you up anywhere in the Twin Cities metro.
How Admission Works
What Happens From Your First Call to Your First Night
You did the hard part when you picked up the phone. Here is exactly what happens next, so nothing about day one is a mystery.
You Call and a Real Person Answers
A real person answers, usually within seconds, and asks one short question: substance use, or mental health? There is no phone tree, and you don’t have to tell your life story. We ask only what we need and handle the rest.
We Help with the Details
Our team helps review your benefits, and a short screening covers withdrawal risk, medical needs, and mental health, so you land at the right level of care. Then we schedule you, same day or next day whenever possible.
We Pick You Up
You get reminder calls and texts. Before pickup, your admissions coordinator and your driver call you together, so you know the name, the car, and the timing before it’s in your driveway. In the car: water, Gatorade, snacks, and a bagged lunch. Your driver, most often someone in long-term recovery, helps with your bags.
A Real Person Meets You When You Arrive
Your driver walks you inside and hands you off by name to the team member waiting for you. Your intake team completes your application with you. If you’re hungry, there’s a meal waiting. Treatment starts, and you never carried the logistics.
“The client has done the hard work by picking up the phone. We will carry them the rest of the way.”
Sarah Roy, Executive Vice President
Reviews from Google
Why Clients Choose NorthStar Regional
Don’t just take our word for it. Here is what alumni say about their time in treatment.
Keep reading
Related Articles and Resources
Resources
Before You Call
How admissions works, guides for families, and the forms you can complete early. More resources are linked throughout the site, or contact admissions and we’ll send anything by email.
Questions we hear every day
Common Questions About Comprehensive Assessments
What is a comprehensive assessment?
It is Minnesota’s official evaluation of what kind and amount of care a person needs. In a structured talk, it covers your use history, health, mental health, and life situation. You come away with a clear recommendation and, where it applies, access to public funding.
Do I need a referral to get an assessment?
No. You can call and schedule one directly. We also complete assessments requested by counties, courts, probation officers, and employers. We release results only with your written authorization or another legal basis, and we cannot guarantee the requesting agency will accept them.
How fast can I get one?
If you are admitting to treatment, it is part of your intake. As a standalone service, we book it fast at our outpatient clinic in Shakopee or by telehealth.
What does the assessment ask?
Your substance use history, physical and mental health, living situation, supports, and goals. We ask only what we need. There is no life-story interrogation. The assessment exists to match you to the right care, not to make you relive your worst day.
Who uses the results?
You do, first. It gives you your level-of-care recommendation. Counties and funders use it too, because Behavioral Health Fund and Medical Assistance eligibility runs through it. That is how treatment gets paid for when there is no insurance.
Do I have to do treatment at NorthStar Regional afterward?
No. The assessment is honest about what you need, and you choose where to get it. If we’re not the right fit, we say so and help you find what is.
Can the assessment be done by telehealth?
Yes. We can do it by secure video, from anywhere in Minnesota.
What does it cost?
Coverage depends on your plan, the service, eligibility, and authorization requirements. Our team helps review your benefits and available payment options. Benefits verification is not a guarantee of payment.
Admissions
Make the First Call and We'll Take It from There
Confidential, no obligation, and answered by someone who knows what you’re facing and cares to listen.