Northwestern Human Services

Police: Property of 2 Carlisle schools vandalized

Property at two separate Carlisle schools was found vandalized Monday, according to police.

Police said a window and a door were shot out from inside the NHS Human Services Autism School on Waggoners Gap Road sometime over the weekend.

That's also when a school vehicle belonging to the River Rock Academy was believed to be shot, police said. The front windshield and the driver's side of the vehicle were affected.

Each incident left $500 worth of damage, according to police.

NHS Human Services: Joseph Rocks, Chief Executive Officer

The history of NHS Human Services dates back to the 1960s when President John F. Kennedy began providing federal funding for community health centers. As the Northwest Center, the organization was one of the first three mental health service units in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today they operate 670 facilities in seven states. They are one of the largest non-profit providers of human services. These services include programs in the areas of mental health, addictive diseases, intellectual and developmental disabilities, juvenile justice, autism, education and foster care.

Diversification and Specialization of Services

At first glance, NHS seems to provide a widely diverse slate of services. There is a philosophy behind their method, however.

“We look at the continuum of care in every single service line,” Joseph Rocks, CEO, said.

For instance, NHS currently has about 2,500 kids on the autism spectrum in their care. They begin by working with the autistic child at a young age, as do most providers in the country.

“For those who have to work with families of persons with autism, what is not recognized widely enough is that the entire family is affected.  For the siblings of the child with autism, and certainly for the parents, you end up with your life and needs centered on the attention of that one child,” Rocks said.

One answer they provide is day programs which allow families to return to some semblance of routine that may not be possible due to the constant care requirements of the child with autism. NHS currently is running 18 day programs for autistic children.

Then the child grows old enough for schooling.

“In too many instances… the public school systems, as much as they try, just don’t have the ability to give [the autistic student] in a normal classroom what they need,” Rocks said.

NHS now runs 10 specialized, private autism schools.

“It is not extraordinary for us to be waitlisted in the opening of a school by the time we open the door to the first student,” Rocks added. “We will continue to grow in this area.”

But what happens to the kids with autism as they become adults? Until recently, there was limited programming for these individuals beyond early childhood, so NHS began pilot programs to fill this need. By specializing in multiple areas, even when those areas seem to be so diversely separate in scope and need, they are able to further the continuum of care.

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