FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PERSONNEL UPDATE

In the IBC front office, Executive Director Steven Kossor oversees all Human Resources, Public Relations and Corporate Communication functions, assisted by Lisa Balben to coordinate ongoing hiring of new employees and expansion of our staff training activities.  John Cappo continues to serve us as our Clinical Coordinator helping to maintain Quality Control over the work of Institute personnel and assure that children are receiving services from the best-qualified providers possible, with minimum delays. 

Matthew Mauriello and Amy Pascucci continue to provide support, nurturance,  assistance and oversight to the Behavior Specialists and Mobile Therapists as our Clinical Mentors.  Amy Pascucci and Melissa Noll also provides oversight of Clinical Writing and recently became a Nationally Certified and Pennsylvania Certified School Psychologist.  Michelle Sahadi has accepted the position of Quality Assurance Analyst, monitoring the quality of Progress Note and Supervision Documentation, while retaining her role as our lead Therapeutic Staff Support (TSS) provider and trainer.  Michelle is joined in the training role by Jessica Morley, who is also providing Program Specialist services (diagnostic and consultation services to Charter Schools and other Public Schools).

Our newest Behavior Specialist Consultants, Elizabeth Turley, Nicole Jerlinski and William LaValle join Adrian Quinn, Edward Miller, Michele Weller, Tiffany Arnold, Matthew Mauriello, and Jessica Morley.  Founder and Executive Director Steven Kossor continues to oversee the Treatment Outcome Measurement Project.  Analyses of more than 600 randomly selected treatment records between 2002 and 2007 show that between 74% and 82% 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.  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 following schools:

The Institute for Behavior Change is disappointed to report  that the IBC Charter School proposal was rejected wholeheartedly by both of the two local school districts where the proposed was presented.  The IBC Charter School was proposed to offer state-of-the-art integrated education and treatment programs for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders to facilitate their successful integration into mainstream educational programs. It will be necessary to appeal to the state Department of Education in order to proceed with the Charter, and a considerable amount of support and encouragement has been received for that effort.  Our priority remains the delivery of expert outpatient mental health and behavioral support to children and adolescents, but we will continue to pursue the Charter School as vigorously as we can.