A community publication on behavioral healthcare.

ConnectionsSUMMER 2015

BLAKE 2.0Beautiful New Facility Now OpenCarrier’s Windows Project A Former Blake Patient Helps Others

WINDOWS TO THE FUTURE VINNY’S VOICE

Building a bridge between medicine and creative expression.

3Windows to the FutureA “Paint-Out” at Carrier’s Healing Arts Conference

4-6Art for Healing’s SakeA bridge between medicine and creative expression

7Dr. NobelHis most cherished prizes

8-9Blake 2.0Beautiful new Blake Recovery Center now open

10Vinny’s VoiceFormer Blake patient helps others

ConnectionsSUMMER 2015

The articles in this publication are not intended to provide specific medical advice or treatment recommendations to any individual or group. The publication is for information purposes only.

Comments or suggestions for Connections can be sent to Heather Steel at HSteel@carrierclinic.com.Please call our Access Center at 1(800)933-3579 if you wish to speak with someone about a possible admission.

Contact us 24/7:

Call 1(800)933-3579 or visit CarrierClinic.org

We invite our readers to share their Carrier Clinic experience, which may be used in an upcoming Connections newsletter. Our Community Relations Department can be reached at (908)281-1513 and at hsteel@carrierclinic.com. Written letters may also be mailed to:

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Carrier Clinic c/o Community RelationsP.O. Box 147, Belle Mead, NJ08502

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FROM OUR CEOEach year 6,000 people receive clinical care on the campus of Carrier Clinic.

Today, a man, woman and adolescent entrusted to our care will be engaged in Art Therapy, Music Therapy, and/or Movement Therapy. We consider these therapies to be an integral part of the therapeutic care we provide to all of our patients–we’ve seen them work when medication and traditional talk therapy have not.

It is for these reasons that Carrier Clinic has launched the Healing Arts Initiative with plans to expand the current clinical program by adding original artwork to the walls of each unit, hallways, and common areas on our campus. It will be our Gallery of Healing.

As restoration continues on the Carrier Clinic campus, double hung windows recycled from our original hospital will be used by local artists to create scenes of nature that reflect the serenity of our campus. Artists and clinical professionals attending our upcoming conference, “The Healing Science of Art” on September 24th will be able to observe those artists as they paint. The conference will also feature Dr. Jeremy Nobel, founder and president of the Foundation for Art and Healing, as well as hands-on activities including horticultural therapy, drum circles, poetry reading, sand therapy, and more. We’re honored to be the first behavioral healthcare organization in this region to create synergy between artists and therapists in an educational conference. It would be a pleasure to see you there.

As the beautification of the Carrier Clinic campus unfolds, we invite you to visit BlakeRecoveryCenter.org, to take a virtual tour of our updated facility. We have accomplished much in this last year, but there is still more to do. Please consider making a gift to the Capital Campaign and the Healing Arts Initiative. Your contribution can make a lasting change in our environment and in the lives of our clients.

Together we can Restore Human Nature. Together we can provide hope. Together we can change a life.

DONALD J. PARKERCarrier Clinic CEO

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When Carrier Clinic plays host to a day-long Healing Arts Conference on September 24, attendees will be taking in presentations and

panel discussions that feature some of the most noted experts in the growing field of art therapy. They’ll also have the opportunity to see Carrier’s music, theater and visual art programs in action, at locations throughout the Belle Mead campus...and along the way, they’re sure to notice a unique and colorful spectacle taking place outdoors.

A collective of visual artists, hailing from communities all around the Garden State, will be applying their individual talents to painting the glass panes of Carrier’s windows—specifically, the older windows that were removed from the Communications Building during the ambitious expansion and renovation effort. Dubbed The Windows Project, the endeavor is being coordinated by the Arts Council of Princeton as a way of “rescuing, reframing and re-interpreting these pieces of Carrier’s history,” in the words of Jeff Nathanson.

As the Arts Council’s executive director, Nathanson was contacted by Carrier’s CEO Donald J. Parker late last year, with the suggestion that the beautiful old windows be spared a fate as mere construction debris. The Carrier CEO invited Nathanson to offer ideas on repurposing the glass and frames as free-standing objects of art,

having been inspired by the Council’s annual “Paint-Out” projects at each year’s Spring Arts Festival. During

those popular out-door events, dozens of artists take to the streets of Princeton to work “plein air” style in creating unique pieces of art, with the public

invited to observe (and occasionally even offer input toward) the creative process.

Nathanson will be calling on some of his favorite artistic collaborators to “take a window and make art” for the September 24 project; an opportunity that he calls “a wonderful vehicle through which to create something with real meaning and significance.”

“I have to commend Carrier for their commitment to the arts as a vehicle of healing,” the director observes.

“It offers the promise and the potential to do genuine good, for the people who are fortunate to be in the care of Carrier and its professionals.”

A unique partnership yields a “Paint-Out” for artists, during Carrier’s Healing Arts Conference.

“Rescuing, reframing and re-interpreting

these pieces of Carrier’s history.”

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More about the Arts Council of Princeton, its community programs, and exhibitions at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts can be found at www.ArtsCouncilofPrinceton.org.

– JEFF NATHANSON

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Building a bridge between medicine and creative expression.

O n September 24, the Belle Mead, NJ campus of Carrier Clinic will host a conference on the topic of Healing Arts. One of the most ambitious of such events to be presented in the region, the conference will cover the past history of arts-related therapies like painting, poetry and performance; their fast-

growing acceptance and implementation by today’s mental health community, and the increasingly significant role they will play in future years. Delivering the keynote address at the event will be a figure whose trailblazing work in the field has served to connect the worlds of science and the arts: Dr. Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH.

A young specialist in Internal and Preventive Medicine, Nobel has made significant contributions to the develop-ment of information tech-based automated systems for healthcare management, to the extent it’s been said that you’ll thank him when “you no longer have to fill out a paper form at your doctor’s office.” Still, it’s the doctor’s position as founder of the Foundation for Art and Healing—a nonprofit organization for which he serves as president and eloquent visionary spokesman—that merits recognition wherever a poem becomes as effective as a pill; where an exercise in movement becomes the medicine, and where a thimble and thread become the tools of therapy.

Based in Brookline, Massachusetts, the Foundation exists at the forefront of a movement that has grown exponentially within a few very short years— integrating what were once regarded as

“alternative” treatments into programs that have exhibited some remarkable real-world results, and serving as a

“bridge” between the medical profession and a basic human impulse that extends back beyond the first colorful cave paintings.

As detailed by its founder, an adjunct professor at Harvard School of Public Health and an award-winning poet, the Foundation for Art and Healing operates according to a three-tiered mission that includes expanding public awareness of the benefits of arts therapy; conducting research into the effectiveness of arts therapy programs, and putting forward a platform of “innovative program-ming” that can be adopted by facilities like Carrier Clinic.

“Carrier is among the facilities that have been including these modalities as a way to treat things like anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and depression,” the doctor continues. “The goal is to create a more positive environment...the art therapists are the ones who really build these programs, and our role is in the area of coaching, and toolkit development.”

Activities ranging from watercolor painting and digital photography to drum circles and even karaoke have been in place for years throughout Carrier Clinic, serving to ease the reliance upon medication, seclusion and restraint...and fostering a space where, in the words of the American Art Therapy Association (AATA), “clients, facilitated by the art therapist, use art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork to explore their feelings, reconcile emotional conflicts, foster self-awareness, manage behavior and addictions, develop social skills, improve reality orientation, reduce anxiety, and increase self-esteem.”

Working with fully credentialed and certified Art Therapists, Carrier has keyed into a discipline that has been embraced by the established medical community for its proven results in promoting wellness, managing stress, alleviating pain, enhancing memory, improving communication, and promoting physical rehabilitation. The therapeutic effects of such programs as music-making sessions have been measurable, and the Art Therapy curriculum has drawn from many fundamental elements of modern developmental psychology.

“The fact that such a simple modality had such a positive effect,

got my attention.”– Dr. Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH

Dr. Nobel’s MOST CHERISHED PRIZES

As a faculty member of the Harvard School of Public Health, a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, and a board-certified specialist in Preventive and Internal Medicine, Dr. Jeremy Nobel brings a formidable set of credentials to his position at the forefront of the Healing Arts field. Still, even taking into consideration his two Masters Degrees (in Epidemiology and Health Policy) from Harvard, the certificates of which he is most proud might just be the accolades he has earned as a published poet.

“I started writing in ninth or tenth grade, and also got very involved with photography in college,” explains Nobel, a native of Elberon in the Jersey Shore city of Long Branch. “I have kept up with both pursuits!”

The doctor’s works in verse have been honored with Princeton’s prestigious Bain-Swiggett Prize, as well as the American Academy of Poets Prize given by the University of Pennsylvania. Now residing in Massachusetts, Nobel remains an avid supporter of arts organizations; serving on the board of NYC’s Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and the Board of Overseers of the De Cordova Art Museum in Lincoln, MA. He is also a member of the Institute for Contemporary Art/Boston Director’s Circle.

As the founder and president of the Foundation for Art and Healing observes, staying active as a writer and photographer has “allowed me to maintain a little more sensitivity to the value of arts therapy...to find that bridge between the medical profession, and our 4,000 year old embrace of creative expression.”

Dr. Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPHFoundation for Art & Healing President and Founder

“Creative expression became a widely used technique during that time,” explains Nobel. “Almost universally, the kids got better...something primary in the brain had been activated, independent of ethnicity or back-ground…and the fact that such a simple modality had such a positive effect, got my attention.”

Other significant strides were made through collaborations between medical facilities and arts-oriented entities like New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and the lessons of 9/11 were employed by Nobel in addressing issues related to such events as the Sandy Hook tragedy and the Boston Marathon bombing. Perhaps most significant of all is the increase in use of arts expression programs for military personnel, during a time in which a burgeoning number of returning veterans have exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorders (there have even been arts therapy programs designed to prepare soldiers prior to their tours of duty).

In years to come, the Foundation’s founder sees a greater emphasis on promoting arts activities within settings that range from schools and workplaces, to houses of worship. Most of all, Nobel believes that the medical field and the general public will embrace the presence of arts therapies, for the simple reason that

“People enjoy it! These are fun, unthreatening, non-judgmental activities that have been shown to change the flow of neuroactivity, and that have been included by the National Institutes of Health.”

“People enjoy it! These are fun, unthreatening, non- judgmental activities that have been shown to change the flow of neuroactivity…”

– Dr. Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH

While Carrier has pioneered and promoted these arts-based therapies for more than a decade, Dr. Nobel sees the broader acceptance of arts therapy as having “reached a tipping point” within the past five or six years. It’s a phenomenon that can be attributed in part to the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001…an interval that found children around the greater New York metro area displaying signs of sleep disturbances and difficulty concentrating in school, to even more serious manifestations of depression.

www.ArtandHealing.org

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C A R R I E R C L I N I C ’ S

Healing Arts ConferenceSeptember 24, 2015Carrier Clinic CampusBelle Mead, NJLearn more at CarrierClinic.org

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As the calendar counted down the coming of Spring 2015 and clocks were set to daylight-savings mode, the Carrier family celebrated a “spring-ahead” moment all its own: the opening of an all new addition to the Blake Recovery Center (BRC) facility. Years in the planning, the 8,000 square foot expansion marks one of the most significant changes to the Belle Mead, NJ campus in Carrier’s 100 year history. It also represents the first major upgrade to the existing BRC facility since its founding in 1981 as a state-licensed residential treatment and rehab program for alcohol, drug and substance abuse.

When staff and patients moved into the new BRC addition this past April, however, it was merely Phase One of the plan. Renovations soon commenced on the older existing portion of the Blake facility, with a completion date of Summer 2015 for occupancy later this year.

The Blake expansion is not the only major project underway on the Carrier campus. A brand-new, 5,781 square foot Admissions Center, designed to streamline the patient access process, is progressing toward completion in 2015, as is the addition of two all-new Acute Care Unit wings for men and women.

With a capacity of 20 beds each (the current ACU has all of its beds in one wing) and the ability to effectively maximize a total of 12,000 square feet of available space, the twin facilities will provide a quieter, more therapeutic setting for patients in acute crisis. Together these projects represent the realization of a visionary strategy; one that promises a more compassionate environment to heal those who walk through our doors.

According to BRC director Patricia Jefferson, MS, RN, CASAC, LCADC, ICRC, the Blake expansion finds the “under one roof, state of the art center” growing in a way that meets new needs in the community. Along with the physical expansion comes an expanded range of new treatments to address those needs; programs that include group sessions organized around the themes of Spirituality, Pain Management, Medication Education, and Counseling Relapse Prevention.

Blake Recovery Center “springs ahead” into a new era of expanded service.

“a concept...of respect and positive attitude that trickles down to the way in which we treat our clients.”

What won’t be changing in the months and years to come is the attention to service that’s been a hallmark at Blake: 24 hour nursing, a daily presence by doctors, Joint Commission accreditation, and a licensed counseling staff that puts special emphasis on programs for the whole family. All that, plus a team approach that’s pledged to uphold Carrier’s core values of Compassion, Respect, Integrity, Safety and Innovation—a blueprint for success that recognizes the human qualities forming the true bedrock foundation of Blake Recovery Center. In the words of Director Jefferson, it’s “a concept... of respect and positive attitude that trickles down to the way in which we treat our clients.”

Visit BRC’s newly expanded website at BlakeRecoveryCenter.org for information on the Blake treatment philosophy, schedule details, programs and services—and don’t forget to take a video tour of the all new Blake facility while you’re there, or go to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/CarrierClinicNJ.

– BRC DIRECTOR PATRICIA JEFFERSON

MS, RN, CASAC, LCADC, ICRC

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BRENDAN MAIER and DAN FOWLERFounders, Theater Program at East Mountain School

Among the faculty members of East Mountain School, they’re known as “Frick and Frack;” the teachers who dress in funny costumes for the holidays, and who subscribe to the philosophy that having fun, being a little silly, can often serve to open the world up to troubled kids. So it was only natural that Brendan Maier and Dan Fowler take on the responsibility of establishing a Theater Arts program on the Belle Mead campus...despite the fact that the longtime friends could collectively claim “zero background in the theater.”

Starting as a series of summer workshops, and quickly extending into presentations throughout the school year, the program involves East Mountain students from ages 13 to 16 in creative activities that help them

“connect with everyone around them in positive ways,” according to Philadelphia resident (and self-described “lion tamer”) Maier.

“Our kids are accustomed to being marginalized,” says Maier, while Lambertville, NJ resident Fowler adds that “it’s a really accessible activity; one that’s not hyper-competitive.” Performances, to which families and Carrier personnel are invited to attend, take place in the school’s 125-seat amphitheater, and feature full lighting, sound, scenery and projections. The shows can range from modernized versions of Shakespeare (“Hamlet” and “The Merchant of New York”) to Monty Python skits, and even an adaptation of the movie “10 Things I Hate About You.”

For the most recent productions, Brendan and Dan created their own original scripts with the input of their young performers. Last December saw the premiere of a

“Sci-fi dystopian play” called “Bites of Reality,” while the spring 2015 show is an all-new work entitled “Making It.” Described as a “fish out of water” story about a small-town Iowa girl who moves to NYC with dreams of making it in the music business, the play was custom-crafted to the talents of a particularly gifted East Mountain student who Fowler calls “a natural born entertainer.”

“We work closely with the kids to develop these plays, and the kids have really responded,” says Fowler; an observation to which Maier adds, “the growth we’ve witnessed has been exponential...our own, as well as the kids!”

“We work closely with the kids to develop these plays, and the kids have really responded.”

The 5th annual Walk of Hope returns this fall to the Carrier Clinic campus. The community is invited to participate to help raise awareness and

funds in support of Carrier Clinic.

WHEN

Saturday, September 19th, 2015REGISTER

CarrierClinicWalkofHope.orgWHERE

Carrier Clinic Campus

REGISTER TODAY!

The way that Vinny sees it, he’s often “the first person that anyone talks to” when they finally admit to themselves that they need to reach out for help...

not just a voice on the other end of the phone, but a guide who stands at a crucial crossroads

in another person’s journey.

“If someone’s looking for answers on treat-ment, whether for themselves or for a loved one, I can tell them how to deal with the situation,” says the Monmouth County resident, adjusting the headset that he wears as a soldier on the front lines of personal struggle. “I can also

speak from my own experience.”

Vinny’s own experience begins with the interval between 16

and 20 years of age; a time when “I did it all...from

weed to coke to crack; heroin, pills, everything.” It finds him in 2015 manning the help- line and processing admissions at an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) facility in Eatontown, NJ. The lifelong Jerseyan clearly enjoys his job helping others take those first

positive steps…but along the way came more than a few setbacks,

A former Blake patient, on the front line of helping others.

from nearly getting expelled from school, to being told to leave his family home.

“I was 21; staying in the worst part of Newark, doing what I had to do to get high all the time,” he recalls.

“It just hit me that I can’t do this anymore; that I was better off dead...and when I went to Carrier I was at the point where I was just done.”

Admitted for multiple stays at Blake Recovery Center, Vinny found himself for the first time in

“an environment that was safe, and with a staff of people who really cared,” citing one of the Carrier counselors and a technician as two people in particular who “helped me tremendously.”

Continuing treatment at the Monmouth-based IOP center, Vinny received “the best Christmas gift ever” when he was asked to join the staff there. Clean for nearly two years now, Vinny quickly found his calling in a position where “I’m helping others, and talking to the Carrier people on a daily basis... my life used to be about just getting high, and now for the first time it really feels like the sky’s the limit!”

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Brendan Maier (left) Dan Fowler (right)

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ PERMIT #1281

252 County Road 601Belle Mead, NJ 08502

Some “seals of approval” amount to little more than an advertising gimmick or symbol—while others carry genuine significance in the real world. For decades, the teams at Carrier Clinic and Blake Recovery Center have proudly displayed the National Quality Approval Seal, bestowed by the most highly respected board of our professional peers.

First established over 45 years ago, The Joint Commission is an independent, nonprofit entity that evaluates and accredits a wide range of hospitals and healthcare providers, including programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,

mental health issues, and chemical dependencies. Working not only with experts in the field but with patients and families, The Joint Commission has formulated a set of standards governing care, treat-ment and services of individuals, as well as the management of the organizations who provide them.

To date, more than 2,000 organizations and facilities have been accredited by the Commission, and recognized with its Quality Approval Seal. Being able to claim that certification is important to Carrier’s behavioral healthcare system, as we continue to expand both our range of services and our capacity to treat individuals here in

2015. It means that all aspects of our growing facility operate under a consistent set of peer- reviewed guidelines that meet (or exceed) the requirements of state authorities across the US. It also carries considerable significance for referral sources, insurers, funding providers and other outside agencies.

Most of all, the Quality Approval Seal means that those who come to Carrier seeking treatment can be assured of dealing with a provider that’s held to the highest standard in their field...a seal that “is widely recognized and respected as a mark of distinction across the health care community and across the nation.”

A Real Seal of Approval for Carrier Clinic and Our Clients.

Find out more about The Joint Commission by visiting their website, www.JointCommission.org.

Carrier Clinic is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization

serving the community since 1910.