Natural Setting Therapeutic Management (NSTM) is a psychoeducational consultation and training program designed to enrich the therapeutic capacity of a referred individual's natural environment. The special needs of the "at risk" individuals living therein are thus addressed by increasing the behavioral competency of the newly trained, responsible persons. Competency is achieved by mastering the precepts of eleven interactive models, which collectively represent the NSTM Multiple-Model system.  All program activities take place in the referred individual's natural environment, which is behaviorally scrutinized and subsequently transformed, into a therapeutic milieu.  This milieu, the behavior of the person with mental retardation, the individuals empowered with the responsibility of managing the program, and the socio-political system in which all of the above exist, collectively represent the four discrete areas within which a complete NSTM assessment is conducted.  We do not assume the person with mental retardation necessarily "is" or "has" the problem, but that the problem is more likely to be complex and reflect difficulty in each of the above four areas.  Therefore, the NSTM four factor assessment program yields intervention strategies which address not only the short range goal of remedying the presenting problem but the more important long range purpose of maintaining change over time.  That is, our goal is to achieve lasting change by transferring ownership of the entire NSTM process to those who are directly affected by it, the person originally referred and those who are responsible for him/her.

Project NSTM has evolved over twenty years of research and development and is currently housed within the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.  The goal of the Project as originally conceived in March,1978 was to provide an alternative to institutionalization for families and agencies caring for individuals with a developmental disability who also manifested severe behavioral problems. Project NSTM was adopted by the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities as one of the cornerstones of the clinical service delivery system available to families throughout the state. It has also been adopted nationally as a model for service delivery. NSTM continues to serve as a Center for state-of-the-art behavioral services as well as an important training site for graduate students through its affiliation with GSAPP.

 

Programs Housed at 797 Hoes Lane West

I. Project: Natural Setting Therapeutic Management (NSTM).  Project NSTM completed its fourteenth year at Rutgers, The State University and continued to serve families with individual with developmental disabilities and behavioral challenges. Project NSTM also continued to serve as a key training site for GSAPP students, employing five current students. Two additional students are added each academic year, bringing the average number of GSAPP students supported by the Project to seven. Drs. Petronko, Kormann and DiDomenico have published more than fifteen scholarly articles/book chapters describing CBT and behavioral support services to the disability community.

II.  School Consultation Program.  This program provides behavioral consultation and training to over 20 school districts across the state. Districts are increasingly looking toward Project NSTM as an important source for individual students referrals and general behavior consultation contracts.  The Project fields dozens of contacts each year seeking consultation services.

III. Anxiety Disorders Clinic.  Drs. Petronko and DiDomenico see continued growth in this community based clinic each year. A waiting list for both the adult and child/adolescent programs were seen this year indicating the growing need for a sliding scale based program that specializes in anxiety disorders.  The clinic also serves as a critical training site for GSAPP students and saw over six students being trained, supervised and exposed to a variety of anxiety based services (i.e. OCD support group, individual and group psychotherapy).

IV.  The State and Federal PTSD Clinic.  Dr. Petronko provides a state of the art clinic to address combat-related post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Contracts with both the state and federal Veterans Administration served veterans of all wars from World War II through the current conflict in Iraq.