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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BROOKLYN PSYCHIATRIC CENTERS’
ROSE GELORMINO STAR PROGRAM STAFF HONORED
BROOKLYN, NY—May 9, 2003—Staff members from Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ Rose Gelormino STAR Program were honored at an awards ceremony May 7, 2003, by the children of Rose Gelormino in recognition of the quality mental health services they provide to children in need of counseling in the public schools.
Last year Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers renamed the STAR (Support Team for Awareness and Responsibility) Program the Rose Gelormino STAR Program in honor of the late Mrs. Gelormino. The STAR Program, a division of Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers, is an on-site licensed mental health program located in various schools throughout District 15 in Brooklyn. The STAR program provides counseling services to school children experiencing emotional difficulties that are affecting their learning abilities and/or behavior, and works to prevent their placement in special educational classes. Counseling consists of individual, family, or group treatment.
Speaking on behalf of his brothers and sister, Anthony Gelormino praised the Rose Gelormino STAR Program staff for going into the public schools in their mother’s name and helping children whose lives are in chaos. “We’re proud to be part of what you’re doing,” he said.
Mr. Gelormino continued, “Every child needs to know there is somebody who cares and the only way they know that is if you’re in front of them, which is what these social workers do.”
Mr. Gelormino and his brothers, Generoso, Louis, and James, and sister, Mary, presented star-shaped plaques to the following staff members: Annette Blanchard, Marie Edesess. Howard Gordon, Josee Groleau, Erik Luna, America Rivera, Ilona Sena, Kathy Thoresen, Cory Curtin, and Roger Rosenthal.
Ms. Groleau, Rose Gelormino STAR Program administrator and Louis E. Reinhold Downtown Clinic assistant administrator, shared one of the program’s success stories at the ceremony. She told of a boy who was referred to the program for therapy five years ago because he was suffering from severe behavioral and academic problems and was at risk for placement in special education. While the first two years of treatment were difficult, Ms. Groleau said she was able to identify the source of his anger and today the child is thriving in middle school, his self-esteem has improved, he has many friends, and he was recently named Student of the Month.
Ms. Groleau said this student is an example of what can happen when children in need have adults in their lives who believe in them.
Ms. Sena, Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ Louis E. Reinhold Downtown clinic administrator, said families today are more troubled and experience more chaos than when the STAR Program started in 1985. Therapists are finding today that children experience more emotional difficulties for a variety of reasons including physical abuse, substance abuse in their families, and multiple foster care placements, she said.
By providing treatment to keep children from placement in special education classes, which cost approximately $34,272 to $40,000 per year, per child, and help them remain in regular classrooms, which cost approximately $7,683 to $8,000 per year, per child, the program saves the government money said Dr. Pamela Straker, president and CEO of Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers. Unfortunately, because of changes in funding formulas, on-site public school mental health programs have experienced a severe loss in government funding and are threatened, she said.
Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers, which was founded in 1907, offers more than 20 quality mental health programs throughout the borough including 14 on-site programs in the public schools, five outpatient mental health clinics in Bushwick, Canarsie, Flatbush-Sheepshead Bay, Williamsburg-Greenpoint, and downtown Brooklyn, a drug and alcohol treatment program, and two programs for seniors. Its staff of more than 100 professionals makes more than 60,000 visits a year. For more information about Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers, please call 718-875-5625.