New River Behavioral Health Care (NRBHC) is helping local kids become the students they’ve always wanted to be.
NRBHC in partnership with the McDowell County School System takes children who are having trouble functioning in regular school and places them in the Day Treatment Program. It ensures that students get whatever help they may need and teaches them how to deal with daily stressors in a classroom setting.
Students who enter the program receive a specialized lesson plan to ensure that their needs and disabilities are met, said Stephanie Dvorak, a licensed clinical counselor at NRBHC.
A slow transition process is used to provide students with the opportunity to take classes and receive day time treatment. These treatments allow them to discover different ways to learn and interact with fellow students once they return to regular school.
Students in the program participate in social skills and relationship groups. Kids even work with horses in a program called Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) and Learning at Head, Heart, Hands and Horses in Glenwood. There they learn that like horses, humans have to be taken care of and respected.
Educators hope these coping mechanisms and life skills will give children the tools needed to “integrate back into school and eventually graduate.”
Dvorak credits the program’s success to “the amazing exceptional children’s teachers” in day treatment. Children in the program often say that these educators are part of the reason they succeed in learning new skills.
In a letter written by a student about the program, one child said, “I love that I have the opportunity to go there. It made it much easier to come back to school”.
Other letters help show the public how much the program has helped students.
“The school is better than where I was at, because there is less distractions and you can focus more on your work” wrote another student.
In every note students make sure to let readers know that the program is “a safe place to be” and that educators “want us to have a successful life”.
All six letter’s that students wrote about the program make it clear that they appreciate the individual lesson plans that ensure they have the opportunity to be a success in school.
Currently, 12 students from McDowell County are in day treatment. To participate students have to be recommended by their school and meet mental health criteria for the program.
NRBHC Day Treatment Program encourages anyone in the community who would like to help these students or provide services to the program to call Stephanie Dvorak at 652-5444, ext. 712.
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