Allison's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Support’

Therap is hiring for support staff all over the place.

Check out what Richard has to say:

Therap is continuing its strong growth and is again looking to add to the support team in the US.

We have had lots of conversations on how best to communicate this position.

On one hand I think what we are doing is tremendously exciting. Helping the developmental disability industry transform itself using software and technology to provide better support and transparency with budgetary savings is really helping to make a difference in people’s lives.

Learning about everything from electronic health records to new mobile apps to different ways that agencies are going truly paperless are useful career skills and knowledge.  The issues and technologies that Therap is dealing with from a support perspective are quite challenging and often fun. We need to thinking about and then implement improvement in training for individuals with developmental disabilities, their families, caseworkers, staff and more using tools like mobile phones, social media, podcasts, webinars as well as conferences and in-person training.

On the other hand, the initial support positions require 90% or more travel at times. Which may seem like a lot of travel unless you enjoy travel and seeing the US. In that case – all of that travel and getting to see the country is actually a positive.
I remember when I was earlier in my career I had several jobs with significant travel. I had one  job where I spent one weeknight at home over a 4 month period. I enjoyed it – although I did consider renting my apartment as I was so rarely using it.  And while I remember whats its like to travel so much for work, its actually much easier to stay in touch now with facebook, cellphones, skype, and other tools.  In fact when I traveled to Thailand on business in 1983, there was one channel in the hotel room and it was really isolating.

Which I guess for me is partly the point. If someone wants to do significant travel at whatever stage of life and career they are at right now, Therap provides a great opportunity.  The work and product are meaningful. The experience of dealing with electronic documentation and health records is part of the future and is a useful skill.  The other team members and Therap customers are generally interesting and nice people you get to meet around the country.

We are particularly looking for house manager levels who perhaps are not looking for a traditional career path in provider management.

If anyone knows of someone who might be interested in a position, you can get more information or apply here.

 

Um, so why are you still sitting there?

Allison

PS: I don’t always agree with what Richard thinks is exciting…but he got this one right, for sure!

Provider administrators, take note! (Some of you have not been paying attention…tsk tsk!)

In the past, before 9.0, you needed two login accounts if you were a “full blown” provider administrator.

Meaning you had the dash aye dee emm account on top of your user account.

And if you forgot the password, we had to reset it. And if an aye dee emm left, Therap would also have to deactivate the account. Likewise with activating a new one.

Now that has all changed. YOU ONLY NEED ONE ACCOUNT. And you also can activate and deactivate other “super (duper) admins”…

Check it out here.

To do this, it is simple:

1. Log into the aye dee emm account.

2. Go to User Privilege

3. Find your user account

4. Click on it

5. Click on the first drop down box: AGENCY WIDE AND ADMINISTRATIVE ROLES.

6. Click all the boxes in the right hand column marked ADMINISTRATIVE ROLES, most importantly, the last one: SUPER ADMIN

7. Save it.

Now, go into the user list. You will notice next to your user account, there is an orange “SA” box which means that account is now capable of ANYTHING IN THE THERAP UNIVERSE.

Deactivate your old aye dee emm account and say farewell to two SComm boxes and another login to remember.

Allison

TURN is completely live on Monday…from St. George to Layton…They all ready have over 4,000 Tlogs in the system!! Today is the final day of training and I’ll miss all these kind TURN folks and am planning on being back soon. Check out the article on their website here about Therap!

Some pics from my Utah adventure:

Eddie....I'm a bad influence on him

The few, the fearless...provider administrators

Lydia is AMAZING and endless energy!!

Phil was SO helpful during a bunch of trainings!!

They got me a present...and I can never forget them for sure!!

The SLC crew...We are all Therap minions!!

Back to PDX tomorrow and then off to Minneapolis to see the CDS crew.

Allison

OFCO is so darn cool. I had a blast working with them…we did MONSTER, stacked-to-the rafters, training sessions from Thursday morning through Saturday afternoon. They plan on hittin’ it hard this upcoming week and going live with Therap. (Their enthusiasm is pouring all over Facebook!)

Thank so much, Jan, Julia and Deb for your kindness and hospitality shown to a slightly weary Therap person. Hope to see you all again soon!

And now for the next round in Sacramento!

Allison

I spent the latter half of Monday driving out to Pendleton–home of the Pendleton Round Up as well as some cozy blankets. This was the first training for RISE‘s eastern division as they move further into their implementation with ISP Data Collection and Health Tracking. Their response was very positive…and they still want to know why MARs aren’t starting right now!

RISE has done a great implementation so far and is working hard to bring its eastern and western sides together while maintaining consistency and a high standard when it comes to documentation. I’m pleased we can help with that.

Today, I’m back in Portland where it is cloudy and around sixty degrees (hear my squeak of joy!)…

Allison

Many agencies have asked to share medical information between day and residential sites. There are several options: creating an individually-based system, creating view-only roles allowing the staff to search and view material from the other program, or create a dynamic program called Health Tracking, which will allow entry from all staff involved, presenting a complete picture of the person throughout any given day.

Be reminded that you do not need to do this for an entirety of an agency, but for consistency’s sake, you may want to include all individuals and programs. Many agencies also do elect to simply construct this for programs that share individuals.

The images within this example include two programs: Hawthorne Avenue, the residential site, and Portland Wood Works, the employment site, that will be entering data on shared supported individuals.

First: Create a Health Tracking (HT) Program

Click on CREATE NEW PROGRAM and entitle it “Health Tracking.” You will want a site with which to attach it and if you have not already done so, you may need to first create a site that corresponds to your central office. So, the site may be “Community Options, Inc.” and the program will be “Health Tracking.”

When done entering the program information, click on SAVE AND ADD INDIVIDUAL(S). You may hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and select numerous folks from the list and then click NEXT. On the next screen, click the ADD INDIVIDUAL(S) TO PROGRAM button.

Second: Create Some Caseloads

You will ultimately create three caseloads of the PROGRAM-INDIVIDUAL type. First, create a caseload that includes the individuals shared between the programs.

Click on CREATE NEW CASELOAD, click on the PROGRAM-INDIVIDUAL button on the top left. Select the Health Tracking program from the program drop down list.

Click on the ADD link to the right of the shared individuals. Type the name of the caseload in the box above your chosen individuals and ensure you will remember what the title means when you go back to assign privileges. I would also suggest giving the same prefix to all the caseloads so that they are listed together in the caseload list. For example, this caseload is called: HT/HAWTHORNE & PWW as it contains the individuals shared between the programs.

You will do the same thing for the rest of the individuals in each respective program. So, there should be a caseload that contains any individuals in the home not shared with the day services program (i.e., HT/HAWTHORNE). There will also be a third caseload for any individuals in the day program not shared with the home (i.e., HT/PWW).

The need for caseloads obviously is dictated by the program. If there are no extra people who are not shared, you will not need the secondary program-based caseload.

Third: Edit/Create Super Roles

General Direct Support super role

If you are doing this agency-wide, then you can simply remove any HT privileges from their existing super role. If you are doing this with only a certain set of staff, you will need to create a direct support role for only these staff without HT privileges. Dependent on this, make the necessary change.

HT Share super role

Create a role with HT privileges only. Above    is  a typical configuration for a direct support staff member.

Name the super role something that makes sense to you, as the provider administrator; mine was called HT SHARE.

Fourth: Assign User Privileges

Click on USER PRIVILEGE in the ACCESS CONTROL box on your provider administrator FirstPage.

For the residential staff, they should have the direct support super role and their current caseload. You will need to add the HT SHARE super role and two other caseloads: the one that contains shared individuals and the one that contains their other residents who are not shared (if this was needed).

You will do the same for the day program staff.

This will complete the process. Reports can now be run based on the Health Tracking program alone without the need to view information under the guise of both day and residential sites.

Allison

Caroline in Lewisville

I left jovaughan training her QMRPs in how to grab and modify ISP Templates and walked in on Caroline (aka Curlean) essentially doing the same. Diamondback Management Services is phasing in ISPs on June 1, just as Community Access goes live. I sense a pattern here in Texas…hmmm…

We are training at Cimarron Living Center in Lewisville, a bit north of Dallas. It’s scary but I am remembering my way around a lot of areas of Texas now (I wonder why…several months will do that to a girl!)… I specialize in where all the Starbucks stores are located!!

Allison

PS: Still too hot.

Yesterday morning, I drove from Tyler back towards Dallas and into Greenville to begin the second bit of training with Community Access. Meh! All kinds of construction made it take a whole lot longer and left jovaughan waiting…This week has been a long one with full days of full sessions (Tracy can tell you!).

Overall, however, it is clear that these folks will do well.

More sometime later…Now, for laundry.

Allison

PS: Still too hot.

Today was day one of the gargantuan training going on in Tyler, TX, with the first wave of Community Access managers and nurses. A very friendly group for sure with a lot of questions–and for those of them who were worried, don’t be; you’ll be just fine!!

I finally met Jo. Jo. Vaughan. Jovaughan. She is only known by both first and last name together. No other way is acceptable. That is how we roll over here in Tyler, TX. Both she and Tonya are very cool and have plenty to do for the June 1 live date (I’m making them lists as they love when I send them lists…).

We had a very nice lunch catered by Rudy’s…I think they included the Sissy Sause for me being a non-Texan but I fooled ‘em and had the regular. There were, however, other sissies in the crowd.

(Phew. Tired.) We are setting up and breaking down each day as we were given a free room at Tyler Junior College and I think I have some Acer-related back pain right now from the suitcase…

More tomorrow.

Allison

PS Still too hot.

So, this morning I went over to Community Access to see if all the computers made it there (and were in one piece). I met Tonya who had guarded all of our equipment and she helped me unpack some new additions (more on those later) ‘cos she’s cool like that.

After that, I returned to my hotel room to plot my new business plan…Allison’s Internet Cafe in Tyler, Texas. C’mon down!!

Actually, the life of a Therap training computer is not one to be envied. Crammed in boxes and suitcases, shipped, banged around in the van, and almost never any TLC…until today. I had allotted time today to spend time with my old computers to do some routine maintenance which you should also keep in mind.

Consider the following for your PC:

1. Doing a disk cleanup.

2. Doing a disk defragment.

3. Updating Windows, Java, and ensuring your anti-virus protection is up to date. And run a scan; it doesn’t do any good to have the software and never use it!

Also, for your Internet browser, for safer browsing, I typically set the browsers to discard all passwords and text entered so no passwords or user names are stored. For Firefox, do it this way. For Internet Explorer, I will disallow it from completing and remembering entered text in the auto-complete section of its options section. Read more here.

If you have a Mac, ummmmm…you don’t need to do any of that maintenance stuff. But I can recommend Clean My Mac as a nice application to clean up debris and keep your Mac sparkling and happy.

Back to the cafe…

Allison

PS: It’ still too hot.