25th Anniversary
The Path
"Guiding People on the Path to Change"
A Publication by PA Treatment & Healing
|
|
25th Anniversary
The Path "Guiding People on the Path to Change" A Publication by PA Treatment & Healing
|
|
www.pathtochange.org |
August 2008, Volume 1, Issue 12 |
|
|
|
| From the President's Desk… |
|
Board
of
Directors Joseph
Pugliese Chairman Timothy
Gage Vice Chairman Jerilyn
Keen President Fred
Martin Director Mary Tiffin-McGarrity Director Chris
Bing Director Dr. Chris Boyatzis Director Stacey
Kifolo 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
Mental Health Consultants Dr.
Vikas
Passi D&A Medical Director Dr. Frederick Maue Mental Health Director Psychological Consultants Dr. Matthew Emery Dr. Hugh Smith & Associates Dr. Antoinette Hamidian Karen Livingood Roger
Smothers & Twin Tier
Psych.
Services Dr. Michael Degilio Dr.
Elizabeth Ciaravino |
|
|
||
|
Contrary
to the name of the popular Disney character, “Dumbo”, elephants
are actually extremely bright and display complex social behavior. In
some cases, they appear to experience emotions similar to humans.
They have been observed grieving the loss of a member of their
herd and emotional when separated or reunited from the herd.
A mother bull will nurse her young for as long as 5 years. They
are known to be very affectionate creatures to each other. They are also
believed to have excellent memories. This is the reason for the term
“I have a memory like an elephant”; they don’t forget a thing.
This means good memories, as well as bad ones, are stored up and
referenced at a later point. Having a good memory can be a
wonderful asset. It can also
contribute to or be a mighty hindrance when it comes to being able to
move forward in the process of healing damaged emotions. When circus
elephants are still young and impressionable, their trainers chain them
to iron stakes in the ground. This is done in order to prevent them from
breaking free and running away. It
also allows their trainers to keep them close, to work with them, and
prepare them for a variety of tasks such as performing circus routines
or lifting large trees and brush in the jungle.
What’s surprisingly strange is that even after the young
elephants grow into huge, powerful mammoths, capable of lifting a ton or
more with their trunks, they remember how they were treated and remain
restricted by those same miniature stakes in the ground. Even though
they are more than strong enough to yank the stake out of the ground and
go pretty much anywhere they please, they don’t even try.
They remain limited by the old boundaries and tied down by past
memories of how they were treated when they were young. We
can be like that too sometimes. Especially when we allow our past hurts
to keep us in a defeated mindset. Not letting go of bad memories can be
like being chained to an anchor that keeps us from moving forward in
life. Just like it is with elephants, unless we realize our capabilities
and shake off past mistakes, we will remain tied down to past behaviors
and memories. God has given us the power to be released from anything
that is holding us back or tying us down if we embrace the concepts of
grace and forgiveness. In closing, I would like to challenge you with
this question? Is there a stake (or mistake) in your past that’s
holding you back and keeping you from being all that you can be?
From My Heart To Yours,
Jerilyn Jerilyn A. Keen, M.A. President |
|
|||
|
News
from our Corporate Office… |
|||
|
School
Counts! |
|||
|
The
Agency had the pleasure of having Dr. Lloyd L. Lyter, Ph.D., LSW at the
Corporate Office on Friday, September 19, 2008 to conduct "Preventing
HIV Disease Among Substance Abusers". This training was
approved for 6 PCB hours. Mr. Lyter has a tremendous amount
of education and experience in the social service field. He also has
experience in teaching, conducting research, and working as a consultant.
The training was well attended and received great reviews. We hope
to have Dr. Lyter back for future trainings! |
|||
|
AEP
Training Education
Directors and Deans, Pete Charney
and Dave Dimoff, conducted the
Annual AEP staff training on August 20th & 21st for the staff of all nine AEP programs.
We would like to thank the Scranton Center for hosting the Eastern
Region training at their office. Both
gentlemen presented practical information on classroom management
techniques. The training
evaluations reflected a wonderful response!
Pete and Dave were commended by President Keen for their excellent
delivery skills and the extremely useful material they presented.
Thanks for kicking off what is sure to be an excellent year! |
|||
|
Risk
Management News At
our last Safety Committee meeting, on September 12th, we
discussed the importance of following procedure and company policy
regarding employee PATH van use. Only
authorized PATH employees are allowed to use PATH vehicles and then only
for company business. Employees
that allow unauthorized people to drive PATH vehicles expose themselves,
the one they allow to drive, and other motorists to significant risks,
unexpected accidents, and punitive action,
which can lead to
financial hardship, strained relationships, unemployment, and a host of
other grievous things. Life is
hard enough, but it can get even harder if we don’t follow policy.
Our motto is this regard: “Friends
don’t let friends drive”. It’s
that simple. |
|||
|
|||
|
This
is “What’s Happening” at our Centers… |
|||
|
|||
PATH
- East Stroudsburg: Our center was very sad to say
goodbye to Jamie O’Brien who left to return to school and we wish him
the best of luck! We are very fortunate to have replaced him with
Josephine Castellano, our new Day Treatment Supervisor! Josephine comes to
us with a Master’s degree in Psychology, years of supervisory
experience, and knowledge in the field.
We also welcome Randy Greene as our newest Social Worker!
Steve, Lisa, and Pete have been visiting the Pocono Mountain school
district throughout the last month to meet with the Principal and promote
the AEP. We are set to start
school on August 29th with close to 30 students!
Pete Charney and Cynquetta Rabb, along with the rest of the staff,
have been very busy preparing the center for school by making minor
repairs and painting the classrooms and kitchen area.
The teachers have each room decorated with their specialty subject! |
|||
PATH
- Honesdale: Our school year began on August
25th! The AEP staff
focused on reviewing the student handbook and norms, as well as
administering academic assessments. Our
staff have been working diligently to utilize positive leaders and
returning students to keep a strong normative culture! Staff have been
implementing a good balance of rewards and accountability to keep the IA
clients invested in their treatment. Groups
have been directly related to the clients’ treatment plans with an
emphasis on anger, self-esteem, Relationship-based CBT, victims, and team
building exercises. Norms have
been tested by a few resistant clients but after-program hours and client
confrontation have been used to curb these behaviors.
The staff continue to work hard at providing the best therapeutic
services they can! We also met with officials from Wallenpaupack and Wayne
Highlands school districts prior to the start of school.
The clients did an exceptional job at the Hawley Senior Picnic!
They assisted in the distribution of drinks and meals and interacted very
well with community members! Two of the three Wayne County Commissioners
were in attendance and thanked our organization for assisting! Great way
to give back to the community guys! |
|||
|
|||
PATH
- Middleburg: The School Year has begun! As a 24 hour facility, it’s always a
challenge to keep clients occupied with a balanced schedule for three
months during the summer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! A huge
thank you goes out to our staff who aided in keeping the house running
strong! This fall looks very promising with the arrival of two new
staff members. We are still looking for a part time teacher to
oversee our clients’ academics and to fulfill our title one grant.
We received our new living room furniture and we would like to thank
Corporate! Clients at the Halfway House have been working hard at
keeping up the grounds at our facility. They too have also helped
aid the staff by organizing and storing files sent in from our facilities.
Keep up the great work guys! We appreciate your assistance and
dedication! |
|||
PATH
- Milton:
The |
|||
PATH
- Scranton: Our Open House was highly successful! We were able to
network with existing referral sources and, in addition, laid the
foundation with other agencies for possible future referrals. Also,
Regional Manager, Scott Constantini, and Program Manager, Anthony Pastore,
met with the head of Allied Service’s Psychology Department, Dr. John
Harvey, and provided him with an overview of
|
|||
PATH - South Montrose: During the month of August, staff have continued working hard to maintain positive relationships with all referring agencies and referrals have been consistent. One of our clients was recently positively discharged and is now playing football for the South Montrose school district. Way to go Nate! Our staff and Day Treatment clients enjoyed a day of recreation at Salt Springs Park, along with staff and clients from the Scranton Center. The clients enjoyed a scavenger hunt followed by a cook out at the park. Everyone had a good time! Our center set up a station at the Hanford Fair for the week of August 18th – August 23rd, giving many an opportunity to learn more about PATH’s services. We would like to extend a special thanks to all who worked hard setting up, manning the booth, and cleaning up! Our clients have continued working to clean up local streets and roads. Clients also recently assisted in getting the center ready for our Open House which was held on August 25th. Welcome back to all of our AEP staff! We are looking forward to an excellent year! |
|||
PATH
- State College: Congratulations
to Vincent K. and Troy for making a smooth transition from the PATH AEP to
public school! The State College Center Welcomes Autumn Bloom, Social
Worker, and Melinda Parson, Secretary, to the team! Autumn is working
towards her MSW and she has years of experience with at risk youth and
families. Melinda is soon to graduate from South Hills Business School.
Both Autumn and Melinda have proven to be excellent additions to our
office! Recently, Bob Vanderwall and Erica Frey presented at the State
College CCBH Office. They had a great response to the comprehensive nature
of the services PATH provides and the CCBH staff were impressed by the
Path of Life Model! The AEP program’s off to a solid school year!
Currently, the students in the AEP are learning about the Colonial Era in
history. The IA clients are working on building anger management skills. |
|||
PATH
- Williamsport: Our Intensive
Adolescent program continues to see referrals from Lycoming/Clinton MHMR.
We are excited that we just received our first private referral
from the parent of a client who is in the process of successfully
completing the program! We are also happy that our ASE program has started
to see an increase in numbers with the start of the school year! The AEP
is off to a successful start and things are running smoothly.
The Community Service program has recently switched back to school
hours and has been busy finishing up some painting for the AEP. We would
like to express a special thanks to all of the Day Treatment staff for
going above and beyond while we look to hire an additional social worker! |
 |
||
|
|||
|
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 Anthony Pastore, Program Manager Scranton Treatment Center. |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Anthony is involved with St. Elauah’s Church
and is also a member of the Elmhurst Country Club. He is “hopelessly
addicted” to being silly with his kids; especially at bed time, which
his wife loves! He also really loves to golf. |
|
||
|
Tony’s thoughts on PATH’s mission are: “Back
in 1988, while at another company, I almost gave up and quit.
Someone told me ‘you can’t save them all; you save the ones you
can.’ At PATH, we provide the necessary foundation to help our clients
achieve positive change in their lives.” |
|||
|
|||
|
Accolades |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Congratulations to each of our Treatment centers who have already passed their D&A inspections, which have been occurring over the past couple of weeks. The D&A counselors have done such a terrific job that site inspections are reported to be rolling along very smoothly! A special round of applause goes to D&A Facility Director for the agency, Michele Barrows. We are so fortunate to have her expertise and her willingness to work nonstop to make our programs shine. There is so much work that she does administratively and with the manual, policy and procedure, billing, contracts and carrying a full caseload of D&A counseling clients in addition to her management and supervision of the Half-way House. President Keen wants to give her special recognition and make you all aware of just some of the many duties and responsibilities that she completes for the agency and your programs to keep us on top! Thank you to Michele and the D&A counselors and supervisors for their hard work and dedication! |
|||
|
|||
|
EMPLOYEE
OF THE MONTH…. |
|||
|
|||
|
The following staff were also nominated for
Employees of the Month for June: Ø
Tracy Greco, Day Treatment
Supervisor, Honesdale Ø
Carrie Haney, Teacher,
Middleburg Ø
George O’Rourke, Teacher,
Bloomsburg Ø
Robert Matiolli, Dean of
Students, Scranton Ø
Josephine Castellano, Day
Treatment Supervisor, East Stroudsburg We thank these staff for
their dedication to our Agency! |
|||
|
|||
|
Welcome to our family… Micah Ash, Social Worker,
East Stroudsburg
Amy Baxter, Teacher, State College Randy Greene, Social Worker,
East Stroudsburg
Vanessa Webb, Teacher, State College Jennifer Hinds-Clarke,
Teacher’s Aide, East Stroudsburg
Nicole Buck, Drug &
Alcohol Counselor, Middleburg
Lawrence Carmack, Community
Monitor, State College
Autumn Bloom, Social Worker,
State College Michael Young, Dean of
Students & Special Ed. Instructor, State College
|
|||
| Copyright 2008, PA Treatment & Healing. Copying or distributing by any means is strictly prohibited |
Preventing
HIV Training
PATH’s
many programs.![C:\Documents and Settings\Tanya P\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\5V5RFY9Z\MCj04316110000[1].png](images/PATHSTAR.gif)