Highlights Newsletter, Issue 12, 2016

Highlights
Issue 12 • Spring 2016
NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF CPC
Winning Season for High Point Lions
The waiting room in CPC’s new Behavioral Health Home located in the
Aberdeen Counseling Center.
CPC Behavioral Healthcare Selected to Help
Transform Behavioral Healthcare in the U.S.
CPC Behavioral Healthcare is one of only eight behavioral health
organizations in New Jersey chosen for a demonstration project that
will help define the future of behavioral healthcare and addiction
services nationwide. Late last year, the NJ Division of Mental Health
and Addiction Services selected CPC to be part of their SAMHSA
(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) grant
to develop a demonstration program for CCBHCs, or Certified
Community Behavioral Health Clinics.
Vera Sansone, President and CEO of CPC, offered this comment on
CPC’s selection: “We are excited to be a part of this visionary pilot
program. We believe that improving access to a holistic and one-stop
system of care that incorporates behavioral health with medical care is
the future of the healthcare system. CPC is honored to be involved in
the planning and implementation of this transformative project.”
The eight New Jersey organizations selected had to demonstrate
success in achieving positive health outcomes for clients in a
comprehensive, community-based, integrated system of care including
services for: adults living with serious mental illness; children with
serious emotional disturbance; those with long-term chronic addiction;
and low income families and individuals. Certified Community
Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) are an important step forward in
helping everyone, in every community, achieve their best overall health
and wellness.
CPC High Point Schools introduced their basketball program during
the 2011/2012 school year. Since that time, the High Point Lions
have established themselves as a respectable team with the Eastern
Conference. This season was a great success, ending with a 14-5
record; the best in school history. The Lions were enthusiastic and
played with determination. The coaches are very proud of the way
the students grew into a team, allowing all the individuals to support
each other. “Everyone here at High Point celebrated in the success
of our team,” says Cheryl Mountain, School Director. “All our
players have brought pleasure to our school, but this year’s team has
raised the
bar. Next
year’s team
will have big
sneakers to
fill.”
The team’s senior Captains, (L-R) Gavin D., Richard R. and Daevon B.
CPC Welcomes New Trustees
Vera Sansone, CPC’s President & CEO, welcomed three new members of
the board in January: Todd Herman of Rumson, partner at Downtown
Investors; Scott Hershkowitz of Ocean Township, vice president at Boynton
& Boynton; and Barry Johnson of Neptune, retired assistant director
at the Monmouth County Department of Human Services’ Division of
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services.
CPC Behavioral Healthcare is extremely thankful for staff and
leadership that exemplify the best in behavioral healthcare. The
Agency congratulates everyone at CPC who helped merit this
opportunity.
Interested to know more? Visit the website for the National Council
for Behavioral Health and read more about CCBHC’s at:
www.thenationalcouncil.org.
Todd Herman
Scott Hershkowitz
For more information, call CPC’s Communications Office (732) 935-2269
www.cpcbehavioral.org
Barry Johnson
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Professional Spotlight:
ADDICTIONS TREATMENT EXPERT
KEN PECORARO, LCSW, LCADC, CCS
“Since I was small…I knew I wanted to do this. I would see people in my
school, in my neighborhood…see what abusing alcohol and drugs was
doing to them and their families. I knew I had to find a way to work with
these people—to help them. I tell my clients, there’s a way to live that’s
better than what you had when you walked in.”
CPC Behavioral Healthcare is a provider of choice for behavioral health
services including substance abuse & addiction recovery. Serving more
than 700 people each year, the heart of the program is its staff, including
program coordinator, Ken Pecoraro, LCSW, LCADC, CCS.
CPC hired Pecoraro in June 2001. By September in that same year he
was promoted to head the program. When CPC recruited him, Ken had
already worked for several other agencies—always looking for the right
‘fit’ for his particular treatment philosophy. He finally found it at CPC.
“I respect the clinical culture, here (at CPC),” he says. “Vera,” (Sansone,
CPC’s President & CEO) “encourages growth through experience and
professional development. She always wants people to be willing to learn
and change to accommodate new ideas and better ways of doing things.”
which has garnered praise in the field.
His nuanced approach to recovery,
rooted in his experience working
with hundreds of clients from all
backgrounds, is gaining in popularity
as evidenced by the number of
people who visit his website to
access the resources and activities he
posts there: www.takingtheescalator.
com .
On program surveys, it is not
uncommon for his clients to leave
feedback like this: Ken Pecoraro, LCSW, LCADC, CCS
“Ken saved my life.”
“Everyone else had given up on me -- everyone -- but Ken never gave
up.”
“Ken helped me, but even more amazing was how he treated my family.
He made them feel like they were doing the right things to help me –
that they were important, too.”
Fifteen years later, Ken is still learning and changing. “We work in a field
where new information informs the way we serve people – all the time.
What we do now isn’t the same thing we did five years ago and it’s
not the same thing we’ll be doing five years from now. We need to be
flexible and adaptable– to stay on top of the things that change in our
communities and the things that change in our client’s lives and we need
to be willing to change, too, to meet people where they are and work
from there towards a solution that works.”
Ken is a frequent presenter about substance abuse and addictions,
including the heroin epidemic, to groups and organizations in the
local community and the region. His ability to communicate clinical
information with humor, compassion and in language that every audience
can easily digest and recognize in their own lives makes him a popular
guest at meetings of PTA/PTO’s, community centers, school boards,
first-responder organizations, and other healthcare and human service
agencies.
This flexibility in thinking and clinical practice has allowed CPC to
stay relevant and provide effective services to clients throughout the
Agency’s 55 year history. CPC was one of the first community mental
health providers in New Jersey to adopt an integrated model of care
that treats both addiction and mental health issues (referred to as cooccurring disorders) simultaneously. When potential clients come to
CPC with stories of being rejected for admission or dismissed from
other programs due to setbacks in abstinence and/or a history of mental
health issues, Ken and his team are able to not only welcome them into
treatment but they also provide evidence-based treatment and solutions
to help clients establish a program for recovery designed just for them
and their own goals. This is person-centered treatment.
A favorite quote from William A.Ward sits on Ken’s desktop. He’ll tell
you that its sentiment has guided him since as long as he can remember:
Pecoraro has over twenty years of experience and has developed his
own staff training program which is a model for other addiction recovery
professionals throughout New Jersey. He is the author of “Taking the
Escalator – An Alternative to the 12 Steps”, a recently released book
The pessimist complains about the wind.
The optimist expects it to change.
The realist adjusts the sails.
CPC Behavioral Healthcare offers outpatient treatment and services for
people with substance abuse and/or co-occurring disorders. The best
addiction recovery treatment is available right when people are ready
to get help, and so CPC offers walk-in hours on Mondays for people
seeking help to recover from substance abuse. For more information,
visit CPC online at: www.cpcbehavioral.org and look for Substance
Abuse Treatment under Programs, or call the Access line at: 732-8422000 x4221.
CPC Behavioral Healthcare Responds to Heroin Epidemic
Middletown has the unfortunate distinction of having the third highest incidence of overdose and death
from heroin use in the entire state of New Jersey. Nationwide, heroin use has skyrocketed and is
devastating the lives of thousands of individuals and families. Communities are frightened and sickened
by the number of people, including adolescents, who are dying from heroin overdose.
The explosion of individuals using heroin in our community has resulted in a need for treatment that
far exceeds the availability of detoxification and residential treatment beds. Thanks to an extremely
dedicated staff using the latest evidence-based treatment programs, CPC has been able to help
individuals at an outpatient level – even those needing a higher level of care.
In partnership with Greater Media New Jersey Stations 95.5 and 100.1, CPC’s President & CEO,Vera
Sansone, recorded a public service announcement regarding the epidemic rise in heroin use and deaths
nationwide -- including Monmouth County. You can visit the Agency’s YouTube channel to listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke9cm97NjSk CPC thanks Greater Media New Jersey’s 95.5 The
WRAT and 100.1 WJRZ for their help in getting the word out: Heroin kills and help is available.
NEWSLETTER FOR
Beyond the Job Description
You could read through the job
descriptions for different positions at
CPC including clinical staff, support
staff, teachers, administrators, case
managers and more – but you’d never
see this:
“Employees must demonstrate
empathy for the people they serve
that stretches beyond the boundaries
of any job description.”
Yet, empathy is not an uncommon
quality to find in CPC staff and they
demonstrate it every day.
Celebrating the Good Things
Joanne Salzman is executive assistant to CPC’s
President & CEO,Vera Sansone. She’s also
the building manager for the Helen Herrmann
Counseling Center located in Red Bank, NJ, and
an indispensable part of the addiction recovery
services team.
Celebrating 20 years with CPC this year, Joanne has
devoted much time, talent and heart to her work
and to CPC’s mission. It was a real treat, then, for
her CPC friends and colleagues to celebrate her on
her birthday this year. The crown is well-deserved!
CPC’s experienced clinical staff are
trained in evidence-based practices
and offer clients the benefit of
treatment and services that are
proven to work. Furthermore, CPC
is fortunate to have a culture that
attracts caring employees -- people
that take the time to get to know the
children, families and adults they serve.
They listen, and learn about the lives
of their clients outside of CPC programs, including whether or not they have enough
to eat, the right clothes for the season, or anyone to buy presents for them for special
occasions.
And all year through, but especially during times when many people feel more
vulnerable, such as the holidays, CPC staff rally around these clients and their families.
On their own initiative, they organize drives to collect food, clothing, toys and
gift cards. They give these gifts to people and families who they know need these
expressions of respect, comfort and support.
One example is the gift drive organized by staff in the Mobile Response and
Stabilization Services program (MRSS). The MRSS program is a crisis intervention
service for children that are experiencing serious difficulty maintaining safe and
productive behavior at home and school. (Read more online at http://cpcbehavioral.
org/counseling-programs/children-adolescents/mobile-response/)
Last December, the program received some support from a local church but not
enough to serve the needs of all those who were struggling during the season. So,
program staff collected enough gifts to make care packages for 17 families – or 40
people. One staff member, Kelly Nance, reached out to her friends to collect toys,
clothes, bedding and a $200 grocery store gift card for a family of 11.
At CPC, stories like this are common -- beyond the job description.
Did You Know? CPC at Work in Monmouth County Schools
Did you know that CPC Behavioral Healthcare is part of the staff at two local school districts, offering on-site behavioral health counseling including early detection and treatment for threats to mental health that are common in young children and adolescents? Addiction
recovery and substance abuse prevention services are also provided as needed.
More and more schools are partnering with Agencies like CPC to provide students and families with better resources to address emerging threats to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. We know that even though nearly 1 in 5 youth is affected by a
mental health disorder (approximately 5 Million children each year), less than 20% of those who need help actually receives any treatment for things like depression, anxiety, substance abuse.
We also know that early identification and treatment is the number one factor in a person’s success in recovering their best mental
health and experiencing relief from symptoms.
For more information about these services and other CPC programs, please visit online at: www.cpcbehavioral.org.
FRIENDS OF CPC
Say What?
“Evidence-based”
Maybe you’ve run across instances where CPC and
other healthcare providers use this term to describe
their treatment and services. In straight talk, evidencebased means that the treatment in question has been
tested and proven to work in both clinical trials and also
in real-world practice.
CPC uses evidence-based practices in its behavioral
health and special education programs because the
Agency is a values-based organization that knows
people receive better care and experience better results
when providers use proven, evidence-based therapies.
There’s a federal registry of evidence-based practices for
behavioral health, the NREPP or the National Registry
of Evidence Based Practices and Programs, hosted by
SAMHSA (the federal agency, Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration). Visit http://
nrepp.samhsa.gov/01_landing.aspx for more information.
Save the Date
CPC
SPRING INVITATIONAL
Monday, June 6, 2016
Lunch
Golf Clinic
Afternoon Shotgun
After Party Dinner
at our new venue
NAVESINK COUNTRY CLUB
Co-Chairs
Scott Hershkowitz
Boynton & Boynton Insurance Agency
Tom Mikulski
Commercial Flooring & Interior Concepts
Proceeds benefit CPC Behavioral Healthcare to help provide
programs and services that promote wellness, recovery and
productive lives for children, teens and adults.
Sponsorship Opportunities Available
Visit www.cpcbehavioral.org
For more information or to register,
please visit: www.cpcbehavioral.org
Thank you to the following Foundations for their partnership. Since
October 2015:
The following CPC Sponsors should be recognized
for their major gifts in support of CPC’s mission:
Amboy Bank Foundation
CentraState Healthcare Foundation
Mary Owen Borden Foundation
Provident Bank Foundation
St. George’s-by-the-River
The Hyde & Watson Foundation
van Ameringen Foundation
CPC Foundation Sponsors 2016
Gold
Silver
Commercial Flooring
& Interior Concepts, Inc.
Greg Maloof & Nova Investment Partners
Maury Donnelly & Parr, Inc.
Bronze
Drazin & Warshaw Attorneys at Law
Al & Ann Ferguson
Lori & Hal Goldstein
Richard & Susan Maizel
Pewter
Simulation Solutions, Inc.
10 Industrial Way East
Eatontown, NJ 07724
Special thanks to our guest contributors for this issue of Highlights:
Donna Coyle, Division Director
Terri Dawe, Division Director
Cheryl Mountain, Director, High Point Schools
Kelly Nance, Children’s Mobile Response & Stabilization Services
Marianne Petty, High Point Schools
Liz Rudder, Program Coordinator, Children’s Mobile Response
& Stabilization Services
Rick & Ana Blank/BTIG
Lois & Marvin Broder
Warshauer Electric
Withum