Page 7 - Palm City Spolight - December '20

DOUBLE SPACE
Palm City Spotlight, Page 7

good WoRks

New Horizons Offers Hope, Two of the outpatient offices are centrally located in
Help And Healing Stuart. The clinic at 1111 S.E. Federal Highway offers a
wide range of services to about 2,000 children and adults in
Martin County, including therapy, counseling, psychiatry,
By Lisa Rymer medical treatment, and case management.
Everybody needs to talk to someone sometime. The Learning Center offers classes to adults transitioning
Whether it’s simply to hear an encouraging voice during back into society, teaching (or reteaching) basic living
this period of social distancing or to ask for help, New skills such as budgeting, job readiness, nutrition, anger
Horizons is there for you and your community. management and volunteering. Participation is either by
The local mental health agency has a 24-hour phone line referral or self-enrollment.
run by compassionate and educated professionals, and a Inpatient programs consist of a 28-day drug and
dynamic mobile response team that will deliver mental health alcohol rehabilitation, drug and alcohol detox, adult crisis
and addiction recovery services directly to a person in need. stabilization, children’s crisis stabilization, and a group New Horizons Martin County Board Directors: Mary
At no cost. Anytime of day or night. All ages. home. Baysinger, Phil Grosdider, Pat Austin and Judy Overdorf
New Horizons, a nonprofit organization, is the largest Established in 1958, New Horizons works closely with the
behavioral health provider on the Treasure Coast, with eight 211 helpline, law enforcement, hospitals, schools and courts access to services that could improve their quality of life.
outpatient offices across the region, and inpatient programs to de-escalate critical situations, develop an immediate plan “These people care about me like I was family,” said a
at the main campus in Fort Pierce. of action, and ensure that people needing assistance have client participating in a New Horizons addiction recovery
program. “I was dying out there. I don’t know where I’d be
if they didn’t help me.”
Since the onset of the opioid epidemic, New Horizons has
helped save countless lives through the medication assistance
program. The intensive outpatient approach to addiction
combines counseling and groups with medication and peer
support to reduce the likelihood of harm and to increase the
opportunity for successful outcomes.
For the past year, New Horizons has been collaborating
with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office implementing a crisis
prevention strategy of reaching out to past 911 callers with
mental health issues, making sure they are all right.
“It means so much to know someone cares,” said Pat
Austin, chairman of the Board. “Help is available. It’s just
a phone call away.”
To learn more, please visit the New Horizons website at
www.nhtcinc.org or call (772) 672-8333.

kids CoRneR

Three Ways To Give The Gift
Of Reading

By Jim Forgan, Ph.D.,
School Psychologist
Give the gift of reading
to your child this holiday
season. Many elementary
age children struggle with
reading and COVID-19
and virtual learning have
widened the gap. In
addition, if you were your
child’s teacher during the
lockdown, you saw firsthand
how hard reading was for your child. Since reading is
foundational for academic success, your child’s reading
needs to be on or above grade level. Here are three ways
you can help improve your elementary age child’s reading.
First, use the computer-based reading program Nessy
at Nessy.com. This reading program is for children in
kindergarten through fifth grade and it is based on Orton
Gillingham reading principles. Nessy helps children with
dyslexia as well as children with weak phonics. It has built-
in assessments, adjusts to your child’s reading level, and
provides games and characters as rewards. I recommend
using the Nessy program four days per week. It’s not
free but is reasonably priced at $12/ month or less if you
purchase annually.
Next, you can teach your child using a specialized
reading approach. The Barton Reading and Spelling System
was designed for parents and educators to use one-to-one
with children. To use the program you should first take
and pass the tutor screening. Then purchase levels from
BartonReading.com. Each level comes with training
on DVD so you can watch the training and then use the
program with your child.
Third, make reading fun. Struggling readers find reading
laborious and mentally draining so they don’t want to
pleasure read. Regardless of their age, read aloud to your
child. This builds vocabulary and keeps the love of reading
alive. As an alternative use Audible or Bookshare.com and
listen to an audio book together. Young kids enjoy graphic
novels like the Dog Man series. Use the book Create Your
Own Graphic Novel: A Guide for Kids by David Chiu to
work with your child and create your own graphic novel.
This provides a fun way to read, write, and draw. Who
knows, your child could become a bestselling author.
See answer in this paper. We offer dyslexia and ADHD/ADD testing. Learn more
at JimForgan.com or call (561) 625-4125.