A Publication by PA Treatment & Healing

www.pathtochange.org

April 2009, Volume 1, Issue 18

Board of Directors

Tim Gage

Chairman

Jerilyn Keen

President

Joe Pugliese

Director

Fred Martin

Director

Mary Tiffin

Director  

Chris Bingaman

Director  

Erica Frey

Secretary

Gene McCarty

Treasurer

Advisory Committee

Jerilyn Keen

Scott Constantini

Stephen Gaito

Robert Vanderwall

William Rossnock

Joseph Talarico

Dr. Elizabth Ciaravino

Thomas Bell

Captain William Weber

Larry Weidman

John Gigunto

Matthew Yonkin

Consultants

Dr. Vikas Passi

D&A Medical Director

Dr. Frederick Maue

Mental Health Director 

Dr. Matthew Emery

Psychological Consultant

Dr. Hugh Smith & Associates  

Dr Antoinette Hamidian

Roger Smothers & Twin Tier Psych Services

Dr. Sara Camaerei

Lycoming Therapuetic Wrap around Services, Inc.

Pamela McCloskey

Karen Livingood

Dr. Elizabeth Ciaravino

Dr. Jennifer Hartey

Dr. Kenneth Kindya

Who Are You Renting Space To?  

Think of your mind as if it were an apartment complex that you owned.  You control who you rent space to of course.  Suppose you rented 80% of the apartments to drug dealers, cheaters, and thieves.  The other 20% you choose are law abiding, hardworking, moral citizens.  After a while the large percentage of negative influence will most likely drive out the positive tenants. This is just the way it goes. The minority 20% do not stand much chance of over turning or driving out the 80% negative influence. 

 The same principle holds true of our thoughts.  If we spend 80% of our time thinking about negative things, it won’t be long until the positive thoughts are gone, driven out by the negative.  We must be especially careful because it can happen to us before we even realize it.  Have you ever noticed that we don’t have to train our minds to think about negative things?  It happens automatically.  Negativity can flood our thoughts almost without effort. If our thoughts are mostly negative, our feelings and actions will most likely follow suit because as Proverbs 23:7 tells us “as a man thinketh so is he”. 

The Apostle Paul warns us of the importance of keeping our minds fixed on positive thoughts. Philippians 4:8 reminds us that “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable –if anything is excellent or praiseworthy –think about such things”. 

All My Very Best, 

Jerilyn

Jerilyn A. Keen, M.A.

President

News from our Corporate Office…

  President Keen would like to extend a warm welcome to our New Corporate Business Manager, Josh Weisen. He brings a lot of energy to the office and we are all very excited to have him as a  part of our team! Welcome Josh!

At the March Manager’s Meeting Dave Dimoff, Education Director shared with the management team about the changes, progress and goals planned for our Alternative Education Programs (AEP).  The Deans of Students from each center came to the Corporate Office to share their skills and decision marketing presentations. Afterwards they met with the Regional Directors and President Keen, to discuss ACT 48 for PA Treatment & Healing  (PATH).  Everyone did a wonderful job and President Keen would like to thank everyone for their dedicated efforts to make our Alternative Education Programs (AEP) the very best they can be!

This month Regional Director Bob Vanderwall provided training in Safe Crisis Management Recertification. Michael Cuff from Penn Safe provided a day of training to the members of the safety committee for the Safety Committee Recertification. The committee learned some valuable information to enhance the agency’s safety program.

“Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean.”

~Ryonosuke Satoro

Smarties

PATH - Lehighton: On April 9th Lehighton presented our AEP, IA, and Drug and Alcohol programs for the Juvenile Probation. On April 17th Lehighton also presented to all Carbon County Schools at the Carbon County Technical Institute. All school principals attended, along with several guidance counselors. The AEP Program raised $43.50 from a recent bake sale, with proceeds going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This is a yearly event held at the Lehighton Center. For the Easter holiday, Lehighton held a luncheon on April 8th for the AEP students and staff. A special thank you to all staff who helped prepare the meal for this luncheon. All staff would like to CONGRATULATE a recently discharged client Matt H.! Matt has been in our program since the end of September. He did a wonderful job and made positive strides during his time. He should be very proud of himself, as we are proud of him!

PATH - Group Home - Middleburg:  Spring is truly here and the view from the Halfway House continues to be breathtaking. The school year for the residents is coming to an end.  The treatment for our clients continues to be “rockin”. The staff at the Halfway House are striving to become stronger in unity with one another and overall with the vision of PATH. As the summer rolls around the corner Michael Burns, Program Manager is excited to state, “once again that everything is falling into place for our residents to have full time jobs”.  Residents being employed is vital to their development as young productive men. This allows them to not only develop a resume, serve under a supervisor, it gives them self worth. They will be able to open their own checking and savings accounts enabling them to be mentored in managing their earned funds. As a facility they are always looking to improve treatment and as staff.  They are also developing more of an ownership of the workplace at the Halfway House. The center has added more community service which will be matched by allowing membership for our residents to the Middlecreek Area Community Center (MACC), a local recreation center. The staff and residents are very excited about this opportunity as it allows residents to give back, but also utilize the community center for social interaction, burning energy, stay fit and overall to just have fun.

PATH - Milton: The Milton Center has been working on spending lots of time traveling around the state delivering the PATH message to many different referring agencies. Staff from the Milton Center have visited Children & Youth and Juvenile Probation Offices in Mifflin, Juniata, Huntington, Carbon, Northumberland, and Sullivan Counties. Our Public Relations staff plans on developing existing relationships and begin to build new ones. The Milton staff is working hard getting ready for the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services(OMHSAS) inspection. Supervisors would like to extend their gratitude to teachers Kurt Eck and Carrie Haney. Kurt and Carrie work during Day Treatment time supervising clients and facilitating group sessions. Thei assistance was crucial at a time when the Day Treatment programs were experiencing a high number of clients and short staff. Thanks Kurt and Carrie for all your hard work! Cli hlooking to improve treatment and as staff.  They are also developing more of an ownership of the workplace at the Halfway House. The center has added more community service which will be matched by allowing membership for our

PATH - Scranton: The Scranton Center would like to recognize the After-School Evening Program (ASE) clients for their involvement in the group process. The clients have been working in groups on the Path of Life model and built their own "Root to Fruit Tree" as a group. They also participated in anger management, grief, loss and identifying positive coping skills. The clients took part in helping staff complete spring cleaning at the center. Many students earned community service hours for this extra help. In the AEP program students have worked toward demonstrating more positive behavior. These students have been rewarded with pizza on Fridays for their effors to make positive changes. Students are really looking forward to the warmer weather knowing that school is almost over and they will soon be graduating,

PATH - South Montrose: Two guests visited the South Montrose center on April 20th, a woman speaker on domestic violence and a gentlemen from American Red Cross. As a reward for the student hard work for the 3rd quarter, staff has shown several videos on the human senses, credit card usage, and The Alamo. Students are also studying the human body and maps of the United States. There have been many activities for the kids this month. Day Treatment Clients were involved with Bowl for Kids Sake of Susquehanna County and assisting the PA Fish Commission with stocking trout in local streams and lakes. The clients have also resumed their road clean up project.

PATH - State College: The clients of the Day Treatment Program have many projects awaiting them when the weather improves. The clients will be creating birdhouses for Earth Day, Mother’s Day, and have started working at their adopted park called Oakwood Park. They will also be visiting a local prison and speaking directly to inmates with similar issues they are struggling with. The clients are very excited about their upcoming projects, especially their adopted park project. The clients have planned a one day work session which will include cleaning up trash, gathering fallen limbs, mulching play areas, planting flowers, creating landscapes, and sweeping picnic areas. Good work guys! We are proud of your efforts!

Our Management Team

Each month we feature a member of our Management Team as a way to honor their dedication and commitment to making our Agency the very best it can be!  This month we highlight

Gary Shipman, Program Manager

Williamsport Center

Gary has been working with PA Treatment & Healing since October 1999. In the last 10 years he has been promoted twice from caseworker to Day Treatment Supervisor. He was then promoted from Day Treatment Supervisor (DTS) to Program Manager for the Williamsport Center. Gary graduated from Mansfield University with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. Over the years Gary has played softball and has been actively involved with their fundraising drive.  His team has been to several State Championship’s and in 2004 his team went to the National Championship. In Gary’s free time he enjoys riding his four wheeler, camping and playing softball. Gary has always been a great asset to our PATH team. He is committed to helping our clients. Gary is always willing to teach staff the Path of Life Model and how it works, how it will help their clients and their families to heal. His door is always open to clients who need to talk.  

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH….

Rose Standiford, a Teacher at the East Stroudsburg Center, has been recognized as the Employee of the Month for April!  Rose is an extremely dedicated individual and is always willing to do whatever it takes to help out.  She challenges the students to reach their highest academic standards and provides interactive activities. She is willing to go above and beyond to help reach the AEP’s fullest potential.  She surpasses the expectations of PATH Supervisors. We appreciate all that she does to make a difference in the lives of clients!

The following staff were also nominated for Employees of the Month for April:

Ø  Nicole Buck, D&A Counselor, Middleburg

Ø Doreen Armitage, Teacher, South Montrose

Ø  Frank Swartwout, Community Monitor, Honesdale

Ø Ashley Mackey, Social Worker, State College

Ø David Munson, Case Worker, Bloomsburg

We thank these staff for their dedication to our Agency!

Introducing Post it Mobile: 

Post it Mobile is a service that sends you daily reminders through a text message on your cell phone for a very low cost. You can receive reminders on sport scores, weather forecasts, famous quotes,  and even daily jokes!  For every person who purchases this service a small financial contribution is made to PATH to utilize in helping our youth while in treatment. If you are interested in receiving this service on your cell phone or want to read more about it, go to the PATH website at www.pathtochange.org and click on the post it mobile logo under the news section.

PATH WANTS YOUR HELP…  

Simply donate your ink cartridges and PATH will earn $3.00 for each one!

Welcome to our family….

• Josh Weisen,Corporate Business Manager, Corporate       

• Clinical Supervisors/D&A Meeting- E.Frey & M.Barrows-May 13, 2009

• Manager's Meeting- J.Keen-May 20, 2009

• Art Therapy-Deb Nelson-June 3, 2009