Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. This is the first edition of what we hope to be many quarterly editions of our agency newsletter. We are excited to get off the ground with it and hope to keep you informed about the community we serve. As the Executive Director, I want to tell you about our agency and the goals of this newsletter. Tri County Care Management Organization (TCCMO) is a non-profit social service agency contracted by the NJ Department of Children and Families to provide care management services. The populations served by our agency are youth and families with mental health, substance use or developmental disability challenges in Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren counties.

The Tri County Care Management Organization understands that the health, wellness, and safety of the family matters. In affiliation with our system of care and community partners, we bring together resources to meet the current needs of children and their families with complex behavioral, emotional, social, and mental health challenges. Our primary objective is based upon the principle of keeping families strong.

Our goal with this newsletter is to keep you abreast of the latest news regarding our agency and topics related to mental health, substance use, and developmental disabilities. We will have regular stories of success regarding our youth and families, features about new services and providers as well as updates on events and partnerships in the community to help keep a caring public informed.

Again, we thank you for reading and I sincerely hope you enjoy the content of our newsletter.

James Parauda, LSW

Executive Director

Olivia started her journey with TCCMO in May 2016, after more traditional therapeutic approaches failed to meet her needs. When a recommendation was made for Olivia to try yet another partial hospitalization program, her care manager Tina O'Sullivan and her intensive in-community therapist realized they had to do something to break the cycle. They advocated for Olivia to receive additional hours of in-home therapy and worked closely with Olivia and her family to identify positive community supports. With help from her team, Olivia learned to identify people and situations that triggered her to make poor decisions and made the tough choice to remove these triggers from her life. She began surrounding herself with more positive people, started going back to school, and found gainful employment in a retail setting, which allowed her to save enough money to purchase her first vehicle. With each positive choice she makes, she finds herself moving closer towards her dream of moving to Vermont. Olivia attributes much of her success to her involvement with CMO, particularly her care manager Tina, whose outside-the-box thinking and relentless advocacy helped Olivia begin unlocking her potential to become the best person she could be. Olivia continues that journey into the New Year as she prepares to earn her diploma and continue working towards her dreams.

Tri County CMO prides itself on surrounding families with a network of supports through collaborative relationships with a variety of system and community partners.

One of our closest partnerships is with the Family Support Organization (FSO). The caregiver of every child enrolled in TCCMO is eligible to work with a parent support partner to provide peer support, assist families in navigating service systems, provide information and advocate for the family’s best interest.

The FSO offers parent support groups and educational workshops for parents as well as educational and supportive programming for youth through its Youth Partnership.

Workshops and activities offered by the FSO are open to any community member who may benefit.

For more information on the FSO, please visit http://www.fso-hsw.org or contact the FSO Warmline at: (908) 223-1191.

TCCMO, in partnership with the Family Support Organization of Hunterdon, Somerset, and Warren Counties, held its annual Holiday Open House on December 8th, at the Center for Educational Advancement in Flemington. More than 150 attendees including families, providers and staff came together to enjoy food and holiday festivities, including face painting, arts and crafts, a sensory room, and visits from Frozen characters Elsa and Olaf.

In 2004, the Annie E. Casey Foundation selected New Jersey to be among the first states to replicate the nationally recognized Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) to combat the overcrowding of NJ’s detention facilities. In the years since, NJ has significantly decreased the number of youth in its detention facilities and created alternative options to incarceration while keeping juvenile crime rates low. Tri County CMO is proud to be a community stakeholder in JDAI in Somerset and Warren Counties. We are looking forward to the forthcoming implementation of JDAI in Hunterdon County and our continued efforts in upholding this key Initiative.