Woods Services to begin next phase of program realignment

Woods Services, among the area’s oldest and largest providers of specialized health care and education for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), is ahead of schedule with the phased implementation of its comprehensive program realignment.

Under a new leadership team, Woods has been developing and implementing transformative initiatives focused on how to continually improve outcomes for the children, adults and seniors they serve through a wide array of programs that provide lifelong solutions. This includes downsizing its campus-based residential services in Langhorne and creating more community-integrated residential services.

To date, the realignment process has resulted in an overall reduction of more than 15 percent of the youth-residential services provided on Woods’ campus in Langhorne with more to come. Ninety-seven percent of the people served by Woods’ and its affiliates in Pennsylvania and New Jersey live in community-based settings or with their families.

President/CEO Tine Hansen-Turton said Woods is actively collaborating with both its affiliates and regional government agencies to design a community-based treatment model for youth with severe behavioral disorders that will afford these youth the availability of best-practice treatment modalities in closer proximity to their families which is critical to their recovery and resiliency.

These latest developments exemplify Woods’ continued evolution into a contemporary population-health organization that integrates prevention, wellness, education, behavioral health, and social services with coordinated and integrated health care delivery. It significantly enhanced its health care delivery last year with the opening of the new Medical Center at Woods. It serves as an emerging national model for providing comprehensive, coordinated personalized care for people with complex diagnoses and medical conditions. The outpatient center features extended hours and increased access – through affiliations - to more specialized services, aimed at optimizing outcomes while reducing costly and unnecessary emergency room visits. Woods also has round-the-clock nursing services and plans to widely replicate this approach in other locations.

Hansen-Turton noted that Woods has been in discussion with Bucks County officials concerning new opportunities for re-imagining use of facilities and properties that comprise the 300-acre campus that are consistent with Woods’ mission. Woods expects to open up its existing campus, integrate it more into the community, provide services to underserved populations and, in the process, create jobs and advance the economic wellbeing of Bucks County.

Looking ahead, Hansen-Turton said Woods would soon announce the selection of a site-planning partner, and the next phase of the campus redevelopment/design process, that will include structured input from numerous stakeholders, including county and local governments, Woods team members, funders, advocates, and, of course, families. The overarching goal is to provide service recipients and their families with new options for support, especially for those who are looking for enriching growth opportunities after aging out of existing education programs.