The NBN Group – Company News

New Behavioral Network supports the current presumption that favors parents’ rights to raise their children. We know that for children in foster care, reunification with their birth parents is often the primary permanency goal and the most likely reason a child will leave placement.

What is the Parent Aide Program?

New Behavioral Network’s Parent Aide Program offers services which focuses on developing strategic objectives on the key issues to be addressed to improve the likelihood of children, placed in foster care, being successfully reunified with their birth parents.

What are the program’s objectives?

• To use the collaborative benefits of school, community and agency resources to assist in the reunification process.
• To deliver training sessions for parents focusing on identifying critical parenting issues.
• To teach parents about procedure and regulations to facilitate the process and reality of reuniting with their child or grandchild.
• To model effective parenting and parenting strategies.
• To help parents develop skills and maintain habits to raise intelligent and emotionally stable children.

What methods will be employed?

The intake process allows New Behavioral Network to review all necessary referral information and we will then contact the parent / guardian to schedule the initial visit. The initial visit allows New Behavioral Network to obtain additional information needed and introduces the family to the agency and services provided. During this visit the process and all components of the Parent Aide Program will be explained. Visiting sessions are then set up between parent and child or children. Parenting education and counseling sessions are arranged in order to successfully reunite parent and child or children.

Who will provide these services?

The Clinical Manager (LCSW) oversees all clinical aspects of the program and supervises the Case Manager weekly. The Bachelor and Masters prepared Parent Aide Case Manager has experience in moderate to high risk parent / child reunification. One member of each team is fluent in Spanish.

To learn more please visit New Behavioral Network

I am a baby boomer. As I have been getting older so has everyone else including my mother. I am a reasonably intelligent person, I am a professional in the medical field. In working in the healthcare field I felt as though I would have a deeper insight into the healthcare system. Boy was I in for a shock.

My mother was at one of the nicest nursing homes in New Jersey. It has a reasonably good staff to patient ratio. When you walk in, it looks like a french country château. There are flat screen T.V. ‘s everywhere, with gorgeous, inviting couches that look like a perfect place for my mom to hang with all her new friends. My mother may not always have a solid understanding about what people are talking about, but she always has an opinion. We decided this was a good place and they will take good of my mom. It was really close so we could visit everyday or every other day.

As you may guess where this story is going we were consistently disappointed. My mother needs her liquids thickened with a thickener so she doesn’t choke. She also needs to be reminded to drink so she doesn’t get dehydrated. Many times we would walk in and she would be by herself in her room, with a cup of water with no thickening agent. This was so disappointing, frustrating, and quite frankly dangerous. We had the sad realization that if we wanted to keep my mother safe and make sure she had some company someone in my family would have to quit their job. The problem was we all needed to work and also liked our jobs. I was feeling especially guilty because I was a wild child and probably sped up the aging process a bit for the poor woman.

As I researched all the possibilities I found a company called Companions for Care. They will provide someone to go into the nursing home and make sure that my mother gets what she needs. The companion they sent with played cards, took my mom

to the beauty parlor, and made sure her food and drinks met her medical requirements. The companion they sent was a Certified Home Health Aide and was fantastic! She gave us peace of mind when we were at the nursing home, and made our daily visits a time for chatting with my mother. Before we had help, I would spend my time at the nursing home chasing down someone in charge with my list of problems, I would be left with little time to spend with my mom. This routine just added to my frustration. The change was wonderful! The peace of mind I had knowing that my mom had company, and someone to get her whatever she needed was priceless.

Companions for Care 856-669-0211 – a great resource for seniors!