FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
US Congress honors the Institute for Behavior Change
The IBC Bulletin is now available in .pdf format on-line:
Volume 1, issue #1 (June '08).
Volume 1, issue #2 (September '08).
The Institute for Behavior Change
is proud to announce that our Executive Director participated in
the prestigious biennial Training Institutes
conference, sponsored by the Center for Child and Human Development at
Georgetown University in July in Nashville. The conference focused on developing local Systems of Care for children and adolescents
with emotional disturbances and their families to identify "New Directions
to Improve Outcomes." The IBC presentation about
Utilizing
Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services (BHRS) via Medicaid's EPSDT
mandate to provide highly effective, cost-efficient mental health treatment
to children in their homes and schools was very well-received.
IBC co-presented a four-hour workshop on Outcome Data
Collection at the
12th Annual Conference on Advancing School
Mental Health in
Orlando, Florida in October. In association with treatment outcome
analyst Natasha Bowen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we
described our data collection methods to enable others to collect
treatment outcome data from service recipients quickly, accurately and
easily. We presented an abbreviated version of this program at the
11th annual
International Conference of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental
and Learning Disorders (ICDL) in
McLean, Virginia in November. A collection of the presentation files,
with notes is available from IBC, in .pdf format.
Click here
for more information about our treatment outcome measurement procedures.
The Institute for Behavior Change
has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA)
Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award program for its exceptional
Employee Career Development activities. We are recruiting Licensed
Psychologists, not-yet-licensed Masters-level and BA-level "Psychologist's Assistants" to
work with us.
Want to work with us?
Click here.
The Children's Behavioral Health Center closed its
Coatesville location after three years of nonsupport by County or State
officials, but the services it provided are still available and can be delivered to
Pennsylvania children who are disabled but who do not yet have Medical
Assistance benefits -- without need for the approval of any government
official or insurance company. The evaluation is
absolutely free to qualified Pennsylvania residents under the age of 21, regardless of family income.
Any child from Pennsylvania with a disability who does not yet
have Medical Assistance benefits can receive an expert diagnostic evaluation
and consultation with a licensed psychologist and certified school
psychologist with more than 30 years' experience in the field of children's
mental health in about a month.
Please call 610-383-1285 (voice or fax) for
more information or
Contact the CBHC staff by e-mail.
PERSONNEL UPDATE
In the IBC front office, a new
Administrative Director has been hired. Tony D'Elia
coordinates hiring of new employees and expansion of our operations in
Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The Institute's new training facility at 1260 E. Woodland
Avenue in Springfield, PA is up and running; see pictures from our latest
training session here. Kristen White
joins IBC as our new Clinical Director to oversee the delivery of BHRS in
Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
Melissa Noll continues to provide oversight of Clinical Writing. Both Matthew
and Melissa have passed the Professional Counselor licensing examination.
Our newest Behavior Specialist Consultants, Susmida Sukla joins Katie Rose, Cynthia Scanlon, Raymond Tainan, Kariné Hudson,
Stephanie Krisowaty, Tiffany Arnold, and Brandi Oaks as
they continue to
serve children throughout the four-county Southeastern Pennsylvania region.
Founder and Executive Director Steven Kossor
has been invited to Arizona, Minnesota, Illinois and Florida to help others
implement his professionally-driven model of BHRS and continues give
presentations about Medicaid funding for treating children with mental illness
symptoms via his BHRS model at national conferences. He continues to oversee the
IBC Treatment Outcome Measurement
Project, which is analyzing more than 1,000 treatment records collected between 2002 and
2010 showing that this BHRS treatment model continues
to achieve successful outcomes, with between 75% and 85% of
these treatment plans resulted in demonstrable benefit for children who had
diagnoses including Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Significant, positive treatment outcomes
were documented in regard to Physical Aggression, Communication deficits,
Socialization deficits, Safety Awareness deficits and Compliance with Adult
prompts in children between the ages of 2 and 17 in a study completed by the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Comparable improvements
in both African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian children were shown, and equal
effectiveness was shown in boys and girls. Two children, formerly
diagnosed with Autism, improved to such an extent that they are no longer
classified with that condition and are enrolled in mainstream educational
programs. The data and analyses can be seen
here.
The Institute continues its role with
The Network for Behavior Change
to provide staff with the initial 15-hour training sessions
required of all TSS providers in Pennsylvania on a once-monthly basis, in order to attract and
train the largest number of TSS providers possible. We are also involved
in developing more intensive training programs to address the needs
of children with autistic spectrum disorders, and an ongoing effort to improve
and standardize
treatment plans so that treatment outcomes can be monitored and progress
measured more effectively. We have created professionally acclaimed
training programs for TSS providers serving children with Autism spectrum
disorders, and an overview of the EPSDT system (differentiating it from the
"wraparound" philosophy of treatment), using PowerPoint technology.
All Behavior Specialists
have Masters degrees, and are responsible for designing and monitoring the
implementation of behavioral treatment programs, and for overseeing the delivery
of services by Therapeutic Staff Support (TSS) providers. At the
Institute, TSS providers have Bachelors degrees, and deliver direct-care
services to children in their homes and schools.
The Institute has provided expert diagnostician and
behavioral consultation services to schools located in Philadelphia and
the surrounding region, and is available to assist other public and private
schools with their student assessment needs, especially Charter schools. We
have enjoyed long-term contracts with the Chester County Family Academy Charter
School and the Royer-Greaves School for Blind.
Selected staff of the Institute for Behavior Change have
been authorized to deliver consulting Case Management services through
OurCaseManager.pro
Click here for more information.
