Lifeline Center for Child Development
| Lifeline Center for Child Development | |
|---|---|
 Lifeline Campus | |
| Address | |
 | |
80-09 Winchester Blvd, Queens Village, NY United States | |
| Information | |
| Established | 1959 |
| Founder | Ethel S. Wyner, Ed.D |
| Executive Director | Joseph Zacherman, Ph.D |
| Preschool Principal | Amy Levine, M.S. |
| Grades | Preschool, K-12 |
| Medical Director | Sungai Cho, M.D. |
| Assistant Director | Ira Zung, MA, LMSW |
| Chief Psychologist | Jay Gould, Ph.D. |
| Site Coordinator | Sheila Kaplan |
| Crisis Intervention | Chris Fullwood |
| Board of Trustees | David Rosegarten, CIMA, President; Andrew Berdon, Esq., Vice President; Mark Neporent, Treasurer; Scott Osman, Secretary; Michael Clendenin; Dominic DiNapoli; Jack Friedman; Greg Gilbert; Heather Hobson; Sanjeev Karkhanis, CFA; Suguna Rachakonda, Ph.D; N. Richard Wool, Esq. |
| Website | http://www.lifelinecenter.org |
Lifeline Center for Child Development in Queens, NY, is a non-profit psychiatric day treatment center and special education school serving emotionally and mentally disturbed children and their families from the New York metropolitan area. Founded by Dr. Ethel Wyner in 1959, the Lifeline Center has grown and expanded over the years to include a New York State Education Department chartered K-12 school, a preschool and evaluation program approved by both NYC and Nassau County, and a state-licensed day treatment center.[1]
Lifeline considers children exhibiting the following symptoms for admission: fearfulness, anxiety, hyperactivity, depression, impulsivity, language delays (expressive and/or receptive), withdrawal, autistic-like and psychotic behavior, or those having difficulty getting along with people and the world around them. Lifeline serves seriously disturbed children with disabilities including Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, Psychotic Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Severe Adjustment disorder. Lifeline's campus consists of two buildings and a swimming pool set on three acres.[2]
Services
- Psychology Department: Provides services for the children, including psychological testing and psychotherapy. Also the psychologists help support the educational staff with feedback regarding behavioral issues and the individual needs of the children.
- Social Work Department: Creates a vital link for families, connecting them with program services and community resources. In addition, they are part of the interdisciplinary clinical team delivering mandated therapy to children in attendance. Family support groups are facilitated by social workers as well.
- Diagnostic Evaluation: Using a series of tests and observation to determine whether a child has delays and/or identifying factors which may warrant special education and related services.
- Physical Therapy: Provides intensive instruction and activities designed to improve balance and coordination and help the child follow instructions, cooperate and share using gross motor games and activities.
- Occupational Therapy: Addresses developmental physical skills that will assist in daily living; focuses on improving sensory integration, fine motor and self help skills, such as dressing and eating with a fork and spoon.
- Speech/Language Therapy: A planned program to correct and/or improve communication problems; delays and disorders range from difficulties with sound production to the inability to understand or use language in the everyday world.
- Art & Music Therapy: Creative Arts therapists act as a part of the clinical team, helping a wide variety of children who may have difficulty expressing themselves verbally to achieve treatment goals and objectives.[1]
History
Dr. Wyner founded the Lifeline Center in 1959, as the mental health therapeutic direction in the US was moving away from surgical solutions and toward social milieu therapy.[3] At this time there were few options for parents of mentally or emotionally challenged children who were seeking help. As Dr. Wyner stated for an interview with City Limits (magazine) in 1998, "The options back then were to put them in the state hospitals. Or you could take them to private clinics, which even back in the fifties cost something like $20,000 a year." [4]
"Over the years, Wyner and her staff have created a model facility for educating and treating children from ages 4 through 16 (sic: current age range is 3-18) whose mental illness places them on the severe end of the spectrum of emotional disturbance. The students, who are referred by the Board of Education, are among the toughest cases to deal with--toddlers who are so deeply withdrawn they hardly notice when a visitor enters their classroom, hyperactive or aggressive grade-schoolers who frayed the nerves of their special ed teachers, psychotic teens who would be prone to hurting themselves if they didn't stick to a strict regimen of counseling and medication."[4]