Elm Street Placements - November/December 2019

Elm Street Placements - November/December 2019

Placements Elm Street

educational & therapeutic consulting

ELMSTREETPLACEMENTS.COM

November/December 2019

Coping Through the Holidays

HOW TO MAKE THE HOLIDAY SEASON EASIER FOR YOUR PATIENTS

A t Elm Street Placements, we understand the highs and lows that come with our clients’ treatment. For families who have children in residential treatment programs or therapeutic boarding schools, holiday stress can be exacerbated. As a mental health professional, equipping yourself with the right tools and knowledge to help families process these feelings can be the difference between a successful holiday season and one that causes a patient setback.

Compassionately remind your families why their child is in treatment in the first place. Ask them, “What would the holiday look like if your child were home? Would there be added stress? Would you worry about their well-being? Would they be sneaking out of the home instead of enjoying the holidays with you?” Many parents have chosen treatment for their child because they have experienced too many holidays worrying about a difficult child and their well-being. The child may be missing this particular

holiday, but they are safe and building lifelong skills. Among other achievements, these skills will help families have joyous holidays in the future. If therapeutically appropriate, encourage your families to create new traditions. This could involve visiting their child at their treatment facility during the holidays. These visits should be set up with the permission of the facility where the child is receiving treatment. Suggest parents bring board games, like Scrabble, or personal effects that may give their child a little piece of home. If families are not able to visit, a handwritten letter or photograph can be a touching way to connect. While their child may not be home for the holiday, these little mementos can help the family stay connected over the holidays. This season always makes people long for home, and it can be difficult for a child’s parents and siblings to see the benefit of their loved one missing a holiday. Offer

them as much support as you can, and remember, we can support you, too. If you are working with a family who may need guidance, support, and therapeutic options, our consultants look forward to collaborating.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season,

If you are working with a family who may need guidance, support, and therapeutic options, our consultants look forward to collaborating.

-Lucy Pritzker

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Emails are a time suck. As you read through the subject lines, you wonder how your time can be better spent. Kevin Rose, entrepreneur and founder of Digg.com, discovered an interesting way to limit the time he spends replying to emails, and it’s extremely simple. All you have to do is end all emails with “Sent from my smartphone.” Why does this make a difference? According to Rose, he found that people have different expectations based on whether emails are sent from mobile devices or computers. Presumably, any email that doesn’t include the tag “Sent from my smartphone” is sent from a computer with a full keyboard and your full attention. As it turns out, people don’t mind short, to-the-point emails if you reply on the go. The best part is that you can add the “Sent from my smartphone” from any device. You can add the signoff manually when you need a quick fix or add it to your signature. You no longer have to waste time writing paragraphs in response. Instead, you can limit your responses to single words or short phrases. This is helpful when you need to send someone a quick answer to keep things moving, but you’re not interested in getting into the details then and there. In other words, you can buy yourself time until you can focus on a more thought-out response. No More Spam Emails!

3 Tips to Make Emailing a Breeze

Leo Laporte, host of the “This Week in Tech” (“TWiT”) podcast, has another suggestion: Tell people you don’t

read emails. Of course, you do read emails, but the world doesn’t need to know it. This is a great way to cut down on the number of emails waiting in your inbox.

Finally, set aside time to do an email purge. Look at the people and businesses sending you

emails, decide which ones you don’t read anymore, and unsubscribe. Depending on the size of your inbox, this can take time, but it’s worth it. You’ll receive fewer emails, which means you won’t spend hours scrolling through your inbox, and that can save you time and money in the long run.

INSIGHT INTO DIFFERENT THERAPEUTIC PROGRAM OPTIONS

How Do You Know?

specialize in particular students while others offer services to a broad range of students.

RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT

CENTERS Mental health treatment is the primary focus of residential treatment centers (RTC). These

At Elm Street Placements, we use our expertise to understand the root causes of issues struggling children are experiencing. From our thorough consultations and discussions with mental health professionals and families, we develop recommendations of specific programs to offer students the best chance of lasting success. Our goal is to find an appropriate placement that is going to help the child develop the skills they need to thrive. Below are two types of programs we consider when we work with families and treatment providers to find a treatment environment for a child who is struggling. THERAPEUTIC BOARDING SCHOOLS Offering stability through education, therapeutic boarding schools (TBS) support academic growth with an emphasis on emotional and mental well-being. These programs traditionally follow a year-long calendar, with academics during the summer. Throughout each year, students are immersed in school at their appropriate level and individual, group, and family therapy sessions. TBS can

programs offer individual, group, and family therapies along with accredited academic coursework. Students are typically monitored

by professionally trained staff at all times, and psychiatrists work closely with the clinical team to develop a program and atmosphere to help the patient thrive. Care within RTCs typically lasts nine months to one year. Though they may seem similar on the surface, TBS and RTC offer different healing opportunities for their students. Our consultants at Elm Street Placements can partner with you to discover which option would be best for your patients. Learn more by calling 908- 228-2212, or visit ElmStreetPlacements.com to learn more.

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Building Connections

Where in the World Are Lucy, Kathy, and Fran?

Every connection made between Elm Street Placements’ educational and therapeutic consultants and developmental, educational, and mental professionals lays the foundation for student success. This fall, we continued to build those relationships around the country.

brought a batch of homemade cookies to her students there! Kathy Nauta checked in

on four of her students while touring four different programs in North Carolina, too! It’s always rewarding to see our students thriving in their therapeutic journeys.

THE ‘FAB 5 TOUR’ IN NEW ENGLAND

EXPLORING SOUTHERN UTAH

Lucy Pritzker stayed close to home this September to visit five boarding schools in New England on the “Fab 5 Tour.” Each of the schools Lucy visited was supportive and would be a fabulous placement for the right students. As Lucy describes them, each of these schools had a niche: “one for the athlete, one for the artsy scholar, one for the empowered young woman, one for the smart but scattered, and one for the socially minded, all-around kind student.”

After spending most of September along the East Coast, Kathy traveled to southern Utah this October to visit 10 therapeutic programs. With a diverse offering of services and approaches, these programs gave the Elm Street Placements team a variety of future placement options out West.

Engagement with programs and professionals across the globe only makes our impact

stronger. If you would like to suggest a school, program, or event we should visit or take part in, we would love to hear from you. Call 908-228-2212 to collaborate with us today.

FAMILIAR FACES IN NORTH CAROLINA

Sometimes a little piece of home goes a long way. In September, Lucy visited programs in North Carolina and

SUDOKU

POTATO LATKES

INGREDIENTS

• 2 large russet potatoes, scrubbed • 1 large onion, peeled and cut into quarters • 2 large eggs • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour • 2 tsp kosher salt

• 1 tsp baking powder • 1/2 tsp black pepper • Safflower or vegetable oil, for frying

DIRECTIONS

1. Using either a food processor with a coarse grating disc or the coarse side of a box grater, grate potatoes and onion. (If using a food processor, halve or quarter potatoes.) Once grated, wrap mixture in a clean dish towel or cheesecloth to wring out as much moisture as possible. 2. Transfer to a mixing bowl and mix in eggs, flour, salt, baking powder, and pepper. 3. Heat a heavy-bottomed pan containing 1/4-inch of oil over medium-high heat. Use a heaping tablespoon to drop batter into the hot pan, working in batches. Use a spatula or spoon to form them into discs. Fry about 5 minutes per side until deeply browned. 4. Transfer to a paper towel-lined wire rack to drain, and serve alongside applesauce and sour cream.

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I nside

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Helping Patients Manage Holiday Emotions and Stress 3 Tips to Make Emailing a Breeze Deciding Where to Send a Child Celebrating Continued Engagement: Take a Look at Our Travels Potato Latkes Are You Making These Writing Mistakes?

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How to Write Content That Pops BREAK AWAY FROM BLAND When it comes to winning over customers with content marketing, many entrepreneurs seem to think, “If we publish, they will come.” That would certainly explain the flood of bland, cookie-cutter blog posts pumped out across social media every day. To win over readers and make the most of your marketing dollars, your content needs to have a personality — a voice. Of course, personalizing content comes with a few pitfalls every marketer needs to know. Read a few sentences from your favorite book or newspaper. Do you think the author speaks exactly like that in real life? Probably not. Speech and writing are two different mediums with different stylistic needs, and trying to translate one to the other can prove disastrous. For example, many content writers include verbal cues like dramatic pauses … by including useless ellipses. In a conversation, strategic pauses may impress, but on the page, they pull readers out of the article. DON’T WRITE HOW YOU SPEAK

in stilted, plodding sentences that inflate word counts and alienate readers. Obviously, formal publications like research papers and legal briefs still maintain this archaic ban on mashing words together, but when it comes to marketing content, rules are flexible. Do not fear using these tools. You cannot go wrong with adding a splash of informality to your writing. Your readers are not going to mind. (Are you still with me?)

SHOW, DON’T TELL

This is a big one. So many businesses publish copy with big statements like “We love our customers!” or “Our passion is helping you!” These blanket

sentiments come across as shallow. So, rather than tell

customers you care about their needs, write content that shows them you understand their needs and want to help address them. We care deeply about your marketing campaigns and want to help them succeed!

CONTRACTIONS AREN’T YOUR ENEMY

On the other end of the spectrum, some people write like robots. They avoid contractions like “don’t,” “can’t,” and “aren’t,” resulting

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