Family fashion

Student Shane Szott and recreation therapy intern Monica Campbell

Recreation therapy at Matheny provides our students and patients with a variety of recreational opportunities and resources to improve their physical, emotional, cognitive and social well-being. Activities can range from participating in adaptive sports to taking simple shopping trips to more adventurous camping trips.

Anika Brown-Dyer, a recreation assistant, noticed that several of the Matheny residents had a special interest in fashion, so she decided to help them stage a fashion show that would also include staff members and family members. The show, held last month in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center, offered Matheny students and patients the opportunity to choose their own clothes and pick the accompanying music. “I strongly believe,” says Brown-Dyer, “that when you look good, you feel good.” Who can really argue with that?

Student Deborah Eike and her father Russ Eike

“Woman” by Cheryl Chapin.

What’s the difference between art created and performed by artists with developmental disabilities and those who are able-bodied? Sonya Kimble-Ellis, the writing facilitator in Matheny’s Arts Access Program, has noticed that, “aside from infusing personal and life experiences into the work, the beauty, intensity and integrity remains the same. Artists with developmental disabilities, however, also aren’t afraid to take risks that often lead to unexpected results.”

For example, take the art of Cheryl Chapin, a resident of Matheny’s group home in Basking Ridge and a participant in the Arts Access Program, which enables people with disabilities to create fine art assisted by professional-artist facilitators. Chapin’s work includes paintings, digital art, dance and dramatic and poetic writings. She has been creating art for more than 18 years, and according to Kimble-Ellis, “Her passion for reading and conversation is infectious. She also gets joy from creating acrylic paintings and digital art.”

Her visual art pieces have been on display at the Atrium Gallery in Morristown, NJ; the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton; the Wallace Art Gallery at Overlook Hospital in Summit; and Johnson & Johnson in Raritan. One of her pieces, titled “Lights in a Far Off Galaxy,” can be seen on a traffic box in Warren Township, NJ, at the intersection of Mountain Avenue and Stirling Road.

Chapin will have her written pieces showcased in the stage presentation at the rescheduled Full Circle 2012: Unexpected Art, a celebration of the Arts Access Program now being held from 3p.m.-6 p.m. on December 1in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center at Matheny. She will also have two pieces of visual art on display: “Woman” (pictured) and “Falling Leaves.” The visual arts exhibit has been curated by Dan Fenelon, a Madison, NJ-based, award-winning artist who continually gives back to the local community.

All reservations originally purchased for November 3 will be honored December 1. To purchase tickets for the first time, email pcats@matheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260. If you purchased a ticket but are unable to attend on the new date, refund requests will be honored by contacting Patricia Cats at email address/phone number above.

Matheny student Raven Bennett after casting her ballot.

The right to vote is a privilege many Americans probably take for granted. But for the students and patients at Matheny, Tuesday, November 6, was a very special day. Several Matheny residents were transported to the Peapack-Gladstone polling place to exercise their rights as citizens. Student Raven Bennett was very happy that she voted, but she had one disappointment. “People get very excited over voting,” she said, “and then it’s over too quickly.” Another student, Yasin Reddick, also found the experience very exciting, adding, “Finally, my vote is counted.  My opinion counts.” It was the ultimate civics lesson and one they will not soon forget.

The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 generally requires polling places across the United States to be physically accessible to people with disabilities for federal elections.

“Blue” by James Lane.

All of us at the Matheny Medical and Educational Center hope that our friends and supporters are recovering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy. 

Full Circle 2012: Unexpected Art, the annual celebration of our Arts Access Program, has been rescheduled for Saturday, December 1.  Matheny will be donating 50% of all proceeds from the sale of Arts Access merchandise to support hurricane relief efforts.

We are pleased to have this opportunity to honor and showcase the Arts Access artists and their creative spirits. Please join us from 3 p.m.-6 p.m. on December 1 in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center at Matheny for a fine art exhibit and stage performance featuring all original works by Arts Access artists in painting, digital art, sculpture, drama, dance and creative writing..

To purchase tickets, call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260 or email pcats@matheny.org. To purchase tickets online, click here (https://events.matheny.org/FullCircle2012). If you have already paid for your tickets, we will apply your registration to the new date. If you are unable to attend, you may request a refund by contacting Patricia Cats at the phone number/email address listed above.

Full Circle will honor the life and memory of  Robert Schonhorn, the late Matheny president whose vision and love of the arts brought this groundbreaking program into prominence on a state and national level.

“Church in PA” by Cindy Shanks.

Two of the artists in our Arts Access Program, Cindy Shanks and Jessica Evans, have had artwork accepted in a juried exhibition to be held by the Arts in Healing Coalition from Oct. 17 through Jan. 14, 2013, in the Carol G. Simon Cancer Center at Morristown Medical Center.

Shanks says her painting style is “about having fun. It’s also about love. The painting titled ‘Church in PA’ is about a place that I went to as a teenager. I came up with the name first and then did the painting.” When Evans does her artwork, it allows her to get out “what I’m feeling. When you’re in a doorway or room, and you can’t get out, you feel trapped and confined. That was the idea behind the painting, ‘Trapped and You Can’t Get Out’. It’s how I was feeling that day.”

The Arts in Healing Coalition at Atlantic Health System, which also includes Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ, and Newton Medical Center, was created by a group of passionate people from the community who recognize and understand the value of the arts in the healing process. Members of the Coalition educate, inspire and encourage people to participate and share the healing benefits in the creative process.

Matheny’s Arts Access Program enables people with disabilities, such as Shanks and Evans, to create fine art, assisted by professional artist-facilitators. The Arts in Healing Coalition will hold a combination reception and holiday party from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on December 11 in Auditorium B at the Morristown Medical Center.

“Trapped and You Can’t Get Out” by Jessica Evans.

Sanofi-Aaventis volunteers, from left: Kathy Brown, Tricia Baisley, Antonella Lozito, John Clouse and Terri Pedone.

Sanofi-Aventis, the global healthcare leader that discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions to treat diseases, has always considered volunteerism a part of its culture. This year, employees of Sanofi US, headquartered in Bridgewater, NJ, participated in a special month-long volunteer program called “Sanofi Season of Solidarity: Volunteering to Support a Healthier Community.”

On October 21, 17 Sanofi-Aventis employees spent a day a Matheny, helping to spruce up the grounds by performing a variety of chores including raking leaves, painting and general yardwork.

All power has been restored to Matheny. As a result The Matheny School will reopen on Wednesday, November 7. All phone and online services are also up and running.

Our thoughts are with all of our families, friends and supporters during this difficult time, and we hope you are recovering from the storm and are able to return to a normal life as soon as possible.

Due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, Matheny is currently operating on emergency generators. Our medical staff is working full-time, and all of our patients are fine. Although our external telephone service has been restored, it is subject to intermittent outages. If you have a true emergency and need to reach Matheny, please call (908) 216-4139.

The Matheny School will be closed Monday, November 5, and Tuesday, November 6. A decision about the rest of the week will be made by noon on November 6. Parents of day students will be notified via the phone chain. Parents of students residing at Matheny will be able to access information on the Matheny website and Facebook page.

Katherine, packing one of three boxes of supplies.

Matheny student Katherine Gaudio asked Matheny employees to donate school supplies for a special project being undertaken by her Girl Scout troop, part of SU69 Girl Scouts of the Heart of New Jersey serving Bedminster and Bernardsville, NJ.

Katherine and her fellow scouts were collecting the supplies for the children at The Somerset Home for Temporarily Displaced Children,
(www.somersethome.org) a nonprofit agency in Bridgewater, NJ, dedicated to providing a variety of services to youth and young adults who are at risk of homelessness or maltreatment. Every year, the agency helps more than 500 children, teenagers and families.

Katherine was able to pack three boxes of supplies, which included notebooks, loose-leaf paper, pocket folders and pencils.

Matheny student Daniel Gaudreau, assisted by Christine Mayercik, uses the eye tracker to click on a Taylor Swift music video.

Matheny student Daniel Gaudreau is able to select his favorite music videos by gazing at a computer screen. It’s part of a new indirect access communications program made possible by an $8,451 grant to the Matheny School from the Summit Area Public Foundation. With the grant, Matheny is training students with medically complex developmental disabilities to control a computer by using visual tracking and scanning technology.

Gaudreau is learning how to use this technology with assistance from Matheny speech-language pathologist Christine Mayercik. For example, he chooses Taylor Swift and Gangnam Style music videos over a video clip of President Barack Obama appearing on the David Letterman Show. “You need to look for two green lights,” Mayercik advises Gaudreau. “Then an arrow will take you to the next screen, and the finger pointer will take you to the video.”

The equipment used for this project was purchased with funds from the SAPF grant and has been set up on a dedicated computer table that will allow students easy access. “The trial group of students is using the eye tracker during therapy sessions,” Mayercik reports. “Students are able to maneuver the cursor around the screen and use either an eye blink or maintain the cursor in one spot for a predetermined amount of time to activate a mouse click. PowerPoint is used for practice activities where students have to use either one click, to change a slide moving through a presentation, or two clicks to activate an animation and then change slides.”

Once students become comfortable with this technology, they will be encouraged to begin using it during off-program hours with support from Matheny’s recreation therapy staff.

Teaching students to use technology such as the eye tracker system is integral to Matheny’s goal of improving the lives of its students and patients. This technology not only facilitates education and increases leisure activity options, it also enables unprecedented levels of communication between the students and patients and their teachers, family and community.

Morristown Medical Center is one of Matheny's partner hospitals in its transitional nursing program.

Matheny has completed the first year of its program, designed to improve the quality of transition care for patients who are admitted to acute care hospitals, and the initial results have been very favorable. A grant from the Robert Wood Johnson New Jersey Health Initiatives program enabled us to provide transitional nursing care to inpatients, residents of our group homes and outpatients from the Matheny Center of Medicine Dentistry.

In the first year of this program’s operation, from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012, twenty-eight patients were followed into and from our partner hospitals Morristown Medical Center, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and Somerset Medical Center in Somerville. The program ensured a smooth transition among care settings and the transmittal of vitally important patient information, such as a patient’s medical history and suggested strategies for communicating with non-verbal patients. In addition, information about individual orthopedic and positioning needs and other specific medical needs were readily available.

The project’s goal was to reduce the number of hospital readmissions of patients with developmental disabilities. The readmission rate of Matheny patients since the project’s beginning has been 7.1%. In the 10-month period immediately preceding the start of the program, the readmission rate was 25%.

From left, Arts Access director Eileen Murray; Matheny adult patient Rasheedah Mahali; and Café Azzurro owner/chef Beni Mavraj.

Café Azzurro, located on Main Street in Peapack, NJ, is the newest food sponsor for Full Circle 2012: Unexpected Art, the annual celebration of Matheny’s Arts Access Program, which enables people with disabilities to create fine art, assisted by professional artist-facilitators. The northern Italian restaurant joins cocoLuxe fine pastries, Peapack; Gladstone Tavern, Gladstone; 3 West, Basking Ridge; and Village Office Supply, Somerset, all of whom have provided food and beverages at past Full Circles.

Full Circle will be held from 3-6 p.m., Saturday, November 3, in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center at Matheny. For more information or to order tickets, call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260, or email pcats@matheny.org.