About us
The Aaron Center is a unique place where children, adults and families are supported in a number of various ways. We now have a referral base of over 200 physicians, school districts, county agencies, Head Start programs, Day Care Centers, and various agencies. The Aaron Center was born from Pediatric & Adult Therapy Services, Inc. (PATS) where in the late 90’s the first service consisted of speech therapy funded by the Mental Health/Mental Retardation Early Intervention program. PATS client base steadily grew and new services were added as needs were identified in the community. In late 1998 PATS was offering Early Intervention services in the form of physical, occupational, speech therapy and special needs instructions and began to offer these same services in school districts, hospitals and home health agencies. During the next few years PATS geographical area grew to the point where services were being provided to children, adults, and families in Lackawanna, Susquehanna Wayne, Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Luzerne and Wyoming counties.
History
In and around 1999 there was an increase in the number of young children referred to us with Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as and increase in the number of children referred to us with challenging behaviors. It was believed that these families needed additional assistance and that psychological services may be a beneficial service to families struggling with coping with the demands and burdens of living with a person with a disability. Although there was a tremendous need for psychological services for the families in our practice the only way to provide these services was to refer these families to select service providers who were credentialed with various health insurance carriers and Medical Assistance. Over the years it has been felt that there was a large disconnect due to difficulty coordinating services among multiple service providers.
In 2004 with a grassroots effort, the idea of the Aaron Center was established. The Aaron Center would be a unique and comprehensive clinic where working in a holistic approach with entire family systems would be a priority. Psychiatric and psychological outpatient services as well as Behavioral Specialist Consultant Services, Mobile Therapy Services, and Therapeutic Support Services would be added to Occupational, Physical, Speech Therapy and Special Needs Instruction. The Play Center is set up for clinical observation and treatment and parents are able to bring their children and participate in fun and educational activities in a therapeutic environment.
In 2005 the Aaron Center was approached by a pool of primary care physicians consisting of pediatricians, family practitioners, general practitioners, and neurologists to develop and implement an outpatient clinic to address the needs of families who have children diagnosed with mental health and mental retardation issues. This collaborative program consists of the Aaron Center providing psychiatry and psychology consultations and follow-up medical and psychological treatments. Parenting programs and socialization groups have recently been added with great success.
In June, 2006 the Aaron Center received a Mental Health Psychiatric Outpatient license from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Pediatric program intends on providing comprehensive mental health services to meet the needs of individuals from infancy to 18 years of age and the Adult Program will provide mental health services to any individual over the age of 18 years of age.
Since January 2006 our consumer census shows that 60 percent of our client’s services are covered by private insurance and 40 percent are covered by Medical Assistance. We are currently working to meet all of the rehabilitative and psychiatric needs of those consumers with private health care and it is anticipated that in the near future we will be able to provide the same continuity of care all of our consumers including those utilizing the Medical Assistance Card.
Our Mission
It is our Mission to provide social, behavioral, educational, psychological and rehabilitative services to children, adults and families. These services are to be provided by trained professionals and therapists in collaboration with each individual and family’s wants, needs and desires. Services will include Behavioral Specialist Consultant Services, Early Intervention Services, Mobile Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work, Speech Therapy, Special Education and Therapeutic Support Services with the purpose of promoting affective, cognitive, communicative, motor, physical, behavioral, adaptive and social development utilizing a biopsychosocial model of intervention to promote overall wellness
