Creating ways to communicate

Student Matthew Detgen uses a switch to welcome visitors to Back-to-School Night, as his parents look on.

Speech language specialists at the Matheny School offer individual and integrated services plus in-class language groups. Our vast library of augmentative devices range from low-tech single switch access devices to high-tech dynamic display devices. And our onsite audiology clinic provides audiological evaluations as well as a dysphagia clinic throughout the year.

To learn more about Matheny’s speech, occupational and physical therapy programs, visit us at The Matheny School Open House for school administrators. It will be held from 10 a.m-noon on Tuesday, January 29. For more information or to register, call Jill Baker at (908) 234-0011, ext. 774, or email mathenyschool@matheny.org.

Celebrating the official opening of the Matheny in-house pharmacy are, from left: Cathy Church, RN, director of nursing services; Denise Bettinger, Certified Pharmacy technician (CPht); Donna Mustillo, RPh; Steve Proctor, Matheny president; Robert Wysocki, pharmacy director; and David Wong, Doctorate of Pharmacy (PharmD).

Matheny dispenses between 62,000 and 65,000 doses of medication a month to our 101 inpatients, so the need for an in-house pharmacy has been apparent for some time. That goal has finally been accomplished, under the leadership of the pharmacy’s director, Robert Wysocki. The main advantage to having a pharmacy in-house, he points out, is “the clinical interaction between us and the doctors and nurses. Now, if there’s an issue, we can just walk down the hall.”

Many of the children and adults who live at Matheny, in addition to their primary diagnoses, have a long list of associated clinical conditions such as seizure disorders and dysphagia, with resulting aspiration problems. Because of these medically complex conditions, the proper medications are critical to their well-being.