March is Social Worker Appreciation Month and a great time to recognize Special Tree's social workers for all they do to improve the lives and well-being of our clients and their families.  Our Social workers provide a wide range of important supports and services throughout the entire rehabilitation process including case management; individual, family, and group counseling; community support; discharge planning, and more.  We appreciate all their hard work, dedication, compassion, and kindness in helping our clients through recovery.  

Get to know one member of this fabulous team! Angela Haas provides social work services at Special Tree’s Midland Neuro Skills Center. We caught up with Angela to learn more about who she is and the meaning she finds in her work. 

Q: What makes you unique; not just a...

Special Tree OT Patricia Laws explains how the Visagraph is helping patients who are struggling with reading and comprehension after a brain injury.

1.            What is a Visagraph and why is this technology a good addition to our Vision Therapy program?

The Visagraph is an eye-movement recording device that uses infrared sensory goggles that tells us what the patient’s eyes are doing during reading as well as what they’re comprehending so we can more accurately target vision therapy to address deficits.   

2.            What do eye-movements tell you about a person’s reading efficiency?

It tells us if there are underlying visual issues and whether ocular motor including fixations, vergence skills are impaired as well as the comprehension por...

Special Tree’s InPro Enterprises wrapped up another season of running the condiment stations at U of M’s Big House during the 2018 football season.   With support from Special Tree’s job coaches, clients were responsible for filling and cleaning all condiment stations at the 100,000 seat stadium for six home games.

“Our vocational clients received glowing reviews from the health inspectors on the excellent cleanliness of the condiment stations,” said Rene Dell, Associate Director of Vocational Services.   

InPro Enterprises began managing the condiment stations at the Big House in 2016 to help clients gain valuable work experience in the community.  Clients work on developing important job skills for competitive employment like following directions, working under stress, focusing on tasks, and...

Special Tree is honored to be named a Top Workplace once again by the Detroit Free Press!  This 2018 recognition marks our 9th consecutive year to earn the award and we're thrilled to move up our ranking to #11 out of 35 in the large company category.

"We couldn't feel more proud of this award, particularly as the judges were our employees," said Kate McClain, Director of Workforce Engagement.  "They make Special Tree a great place to be every day."

To make the list, our employee's took an independent survey to rate Special Tree's performance on qualities that make a workplace great including direction, execution, career, conditions, leadership, and pay & benefits.  Special Tree's overall employee satisfactio...