Allison's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Texas’

and if you are keeping count, that makes 58 certified smarty pants sprawled all over the country. All these comings and goings, who can keep up? That number will change by next week. Promise!

Maggie Paine is the Associate Director (and QMRP) for Allegany Arc in Wellsville, New York. She is their provider administrator, which is no small feat with their hundreds of staff and consumers. They are newer to Therap than some of their other New York neighbors, having used it for about a year so far. Maggie is a whiz with ISPs and all of the New York habilitation plan material. Look out for her as she is a super smarty pants with all of that–my head was spinning.

Shannon Crawford was born and raised in Texas! She is also the FIRST TEXAN to be an official smarty pants as far as Therap is concerned. Shannon is the Regional Therap Coordinator for Mosaic (she is joining her posse, as many Mosaic folks lurk in the halls of Certified Trainer-hood). She has been with Mosaic for eight years in a variety of positions. She also knows this Therap stuff inside and out! (And “Tlog” always sounds better with a Texan accent…)

More coming.

Allison

It was a rough day for many friendies down in The Lone Star state. If you didn’t hear because you live in a cave or something, the Dallas-Fort Worth and broad surrounding areas got struck with major storms including a multitude of tornadoes-some reported to be over a half mile wide-touching down and decimating parts of places like Kennedale and Arlington. Major scariness. I touched base with several Texas pals and fortunately, Jo was alright as were all of the staff and residents. Then I dropped an email:

On Apr 3, 2012 5:59 PM, “Allison Dudo” wrote:

I just heard about the severe weather in Texas, especially in Arlington and Kennedale. A friend in Greenville was just telling me how rough it was down there today and it sounded downright scary to me. I hope that this note finds you and all of your residents and staff safe and unharmed. Please let us know that you all are okay!

Fondly,
Allison
Sent from my iPhone

And the reply I received from our Arlington-based provider gave me chills:

Alison the hand of God protected all of us….the tornado hit  all around us but not our building….some outside damage…we heard it pass over

She later sent the picture of a building that was right behind them.

Send Texas some love, friendies! Our prayers and bestest wishes go out to them for sure!

Allison

When you are SUPER SMART, INNOVATIVE, GOOD LOOKING (remember that all Therap users are perceived as better looking by the general public; it is their aura of progressiveness that they wear like a nerdy shroud), and have SUPER HERO powers (really!), and then there is a group of likeminded and talented individuals within your general area, you have the glorious seeds for a USER GROUP, my friend.

This is what a user group is: A user group is when we invite all Therap users from a state or region to get together and discuss how they are doing with implementation, discuss any issues, as well as troubleshoot. This is often done online but we also like to do them in person when we can and when there are a good number of providers. We have found them to be good networking tools and they tend to help agencies who may be dragging in their implementation to move ahead, as they feel more supported by their local colleagues. (I wrote that so I know…)

The first of a bunch of user groups I have put together (and am putting together–it is a PROCESS you know!) is Alaska and it is tomorrow at 10AM AKDT. Sorry for the short notice but I’ve been a little busy over here!

There is also one for Washington and another for Oregon coming up on April 24. Watch for Arizona, Utah and Texas any minute…and then some California stuff, too. Some of them will be online and some onsite too…so watch for a glowing group of people descending on a local agency soon.

If you want information, get in touch with me: Allison DOT Dudo AT TherapServices DOT net. Got that? I can repeat it if you need….

Heading to Salem…yesterday was Eugene…Today, will catch up eventually. You guys have been blowing up my email and phone the past few days. If you are hunting for me, I’ll find you later today. Promise.

Hugs and Tlogs,

Allison

Hello Therap Nerds,

You have a new toy to play with for the holidays. Early, I know, but fun nonetheless. The Beta is the working release of the impending new version due out in mid January 2012. You can use the login portal to use your own Therap system to play, as it is not real and is only a snapshot to allow testing.

You will login using the link below as normal but you will be in the Beta system (so you will need to enable new roles and such).Also, let me know if there is anything else you have wanted to experiment with and I can enable it for your agency’s Therap system at no cost, as it is not in the “real” or production database. This includes the MAR, for example, and new features such as Individual Care Plans.

Login here: https://beta.therapservices.net/g/login

Review release notes here: http://support.therapservices.net/display/support/Release+Notes+for+Therap+2012.0

And please let me know if you need help. We are looking for suggestions, questions and feedback from all of you super smarty pants out there SO DROP US A LINE with anything notable–good, bad or indifferent.

PS: Check out the new live help system in 2012.0…it is shiny and right out of the box. We will be staffing it as much as we can for testing purposes as well!

***********Happy Holidays!

Allison

So, I’m back here in The Longhorn State after a bit of an absence. I am here on a quick trip to meet with providers and see where they are at, and discuss any specific Texas issues they may have.

I was home for one day after Salt Lake City and then will leave straight from here to Connecticut (to see my dad) and then head to Portland for The Maine Conference. Coast to coast and then some!!

Allison

The next week kicks off some traveling for me. So much for slippers and a pug in the mornings…

So, here is the schedule:

1. Eastern Oregon…I’ll be in LaGrande with New Day Enterprises (Lonni will never touch the radio button again!) who plans on being live by October. The eastern Oregon contingent is continuing to grow as well: Umatilla County itself has hopped on board. They will be using Therap for case management, General Event Reports and their foster care providers. Tami and I are getting to work next week!

2. Back to the sky-high state…Utah. I’ll be training KT&T in Salt Lake City right ahead of our first conference in one of the most awesome states. Utah is hard core Therap territory and the conference promises to be a blast. We’ll have some of the older providers (a whole year!) and some new (not even started yet!) mixing it up in Salt Lake. You had better be there!

3. For the love of Texas. Back to where I was crowned an honorary longhorn to visit with Caroline, Bernice and Gigi…as well as jovaughan (‘cos jovaughan says…) and getting back into the swing of things with my pals down there. We have some work to do!

4. Heading over to Connecticut for a quick visit to see friends and my dad for a few days…

5. Back to Oregon and then off to Alaska to hang in Soldotna with Frontier Community Services.

And this is all before the pumpkin carving party that I am attending on October 29 in Vancouver, Washington.

Everyday, I’m travelin’…

Allison

My friend, Jo Vaughan, sent me some new HCS forms that they are using in Texas to see if they could be sent through the Therap spin cycle and come out in ISP Data.

And I said, “But of course, jovaughan…”

Several of them are in the Global ISP Template Library under the keywords “HCS” and “Texas” so go find them!

I’ll add another once we sort out the codes for the Home Visits…

See y’all later!

Allison

The sun rose over the parking lot as I headed for the final day of my Texas adventure. Today, I spent time with Curlean and the Diamondback folks and now I’m ready to be off–back to cool, windy, showery Portland.

But I’ll be back…oh, yes, (she said with a smile) I’ll be back.

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.

So I have had some fun in Texas, fostering my creative side…I have two new toys to express myself with (and as some of you know, I have a history of doing cartooning and back in the day, even developing my own 35mm pictures)…

First toy=Bamboo.

This allows you to scribble, draw, write and do it within any computer application. So you can markup documents or handwrite a love letter using email…It is very cool indeed.

Second toy=Canon Rebel EOS SLR camera.

I graduated to an adult camera to take real pictures. It’s like learning how to use a camera all over again–and it’s a blast!

Today, hanging out in Community Access’s office doing some stuff with jovaughan…Tomorrow, more training…and then off to see Caroline in Lewisville!

Allison