About Family NET
Family NET of Catawba County provides an array of preventive and mental health services for children and families. Our primary focus is to support and strengthen families who are engaged with Catawba County Social Services.
Our clinicians have expertise in addressing trauma and approach birth, foster, and adoptive family members from a strengths-based perspective. In order to reduce barriers, treatment is provided in the office, home, and community settings. Through a partnership with Hickory City and Newton-Conover City school systems, we are able to provide clinical services and support in their schools.
Our post-care staff provide supportive services for families who have adopted children and families who have reunified after a child has been in placed foster care. We also oversee residential cottages where children in foster care live with their siblings in family settings while their parents work toward reunification or while adoptive families are located.
Family NET staff clinical staff include licensed clinical social workers, psychologists, licensed professional counselors, and licensed clinical addictions specialists. Our medical director is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of children and adolescents. All staff receive ongoing training in cultural awareness, crisis intervention, and evidence-based practices.
Rigardy P. Munoz, M.D., Medical Director: Dr. Rigardy Munoz has been Family NET’s Medical Director since December 2009. He has been providing psychiatric services to Family NET consumers since Family NET opened in 2004. Dr. Munoz has provided psychiatric support and services to Catawba County citizens for almost 20 years and consults with other local area physicians regarding children and adolescent mental health services.
Dr. Munoz is a Board Certified Adult and Child/Adolescent psychiatrist. He received his medical degree from the University of Santo Tomas and completed his residency and fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He functioned both as chief resident and chief fellow during his training.
Dr. Munoz has over 20 years of experience in the area of child and adolescent psychiatry. He is currently affiliated with Catawba Valley Medical Center. Dr. Munoz has served as Psychiatric Chief at Catawba Valley Medical Center and Frye Regional Medical Center. He also was president of Catawba County Medical Society. He was a member of the American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, North Carolina Medical Society and American Medical Association.
Dr. Munoz resides in Hickory since 1997. He has been married for more than 25 years to his wife and has two daughters. He is involved with his local church and volunteers at the Green Room Community Theatre.
Family NET utilizes several nationally recognized evidence-based practices, evidence informed practices and trauma informed practices to promote success for an array of clients including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Parent Child Interactional Therapy, Triple P Parenting, Theraplay, Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, and Darla Henry’s 3-5-7 Model.