Deborah Hibbard's Blog

Like other things in North Dakota (big things) the NDACP conference is no exception….

Its beginning, just now and there are several people here who are ready to get their learn on…

This week Leah Marshall has joined us in Support and Implementation. Leah is a great resource for good documentation ideas for your staff. Leah is also a fellow Mainer…you can check out her bio here.

Today is the second day of Phase 2 training here in North Dakota. Stacey, Wendy Schumacher and I are taking an 8 city tour together, training on the new pieces of the North Dakota system…all in preparation for the updates that will be occurring on January 15, 2012. We are talking referral process, OSP, RMAP, and IPOP’s all over the state. (for those of you in North Dakota…your PCSP is a part of the OSP (Overall Service Plan) or otherwise known as an annual plan. The  work flow can be found right here.

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

Today,  its beginning to smell like Thanksgiving inside…outside though, its beginning to look alot like Christmas…Maine is being blanketed with snow.

Alright…the first of many trainings this week…!

Don’t worry we are ready for you!   (and pretty excited that we were able to ‘skip’ the snowstorm that hit the East coast, by being here in )

If you have not already checked these out…go over to Youtube and search for Therap Services…most likely you will pull up a few webinars on how to use Therap…like this one!

Happy watching!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_9boo6cW1U

Its been just over a year since I made the long trip to the main office in Connecticut to begin my first day working with Therap services. Over the last year I’ve gleaned some knowledge…some from my colleagues, some from you guys, and some from my travels…I figured I’d share some of these lil’ nuggets with you.

-When traveling on this side of the globe never change your time zone. (its the only time I can wake up at 4 am without having heart palpitations the night before)

-Mac’s rule!

-Firefox is my fave

-Blizzards in the Midwest are a little different then the blizzards in Maine. (they actually close the highways in the Midwest!)

-Traveling with 4 Bangladesh colleagues  in a blizzard can lead to some humorous exclamations. “sigh….lets go out and enjoy the cold…!”

-Whenever you travels bring you to West Virginia you can count on something epic occurring.

-Google is a great search engine for finding good coffee shops.

-Java Joe’s in Albuquerque NM is on my list of most fave coffee shops in the U.S.

-of course Java in Houghton, NY is THE best….

-Delta airlines is a little too attached to their special red carpet. Really?

-Southeast Works in Buffalo NY is FABULOUS….you should all learn from this stellar agency!

-I do not love driving through the eastern edge of North Dakota.

-Commuters on the NY subway will stop and help you when your tugging 4 suitcases full of computers behind you. YAY! for those very helpful people!

-Your use of Therap is only bound by your creativity and ability to think outside of the box.

-There is actually an Applebee’st in Williston, ND…not just the sign. (I haven’t forgotten Tony!)

-Every state has its own set of vernacular.

-Every provider agency has an interpretation of their states policies.

-Friendships from college never change.

-Visiting Madison Cortland usually means I get to hang out with one of my (old!) college friends    See above photo.

-Kathy Lange is a trooper, and everyone else at Creative Community Living! lots of training sessions in one er…for two days straight! They work hard there!

-Therap has some amazing people working for them.

-I have some great colleagues I get to learn from.

-Sybil Morin is crazy funny! Lifeshare is lucky to have her and she does a great job managing in so many states.

-what constitutes “manly cup of coffee”…(ask Chris)

-Things are BIG in North Dakota!

-I love seeing this sign in Portland Maine when I arrive home:

- When the day is done there is no place like home (Maine).

Monthly Summaries in Maine

Come one, come all…to a Maine User Group meeting hosted by Community Partners in Maine on June 8^th at 1pm.  You can register here:

We will be discussing issues pertinent to users here in Maine as well as looking at how different agencies complete their Monthly Summaries, use Isp programs and Isp plans in Therap (PCP plans).

Join us!

Don’t forget to sign up for todays webinar, get a sneak peak of whats coming soon to Therap.

Sigh up here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/942422835

Maine, The way life should be…yep that’s our motto, and one of the first signs you see on your way into Vacationland.  (not that I’m biased or anything) Of course if you are sitting in Maine today….you’ll be fine as long as you have a life vest as we are getting drowned here in rain/snow/ice.  I’m ready for spring, er mud season I mean.

Recently I had a great meeting with a few of the Maine Adult Protective Investigators. They were a great group, laughing, and taking all they could in about Therap. They were excited about all they have learned about Therap, the information they can pull out of Therap, and the things they can do with it.

If you’re a Therap user from Maine you know the issue with putting GER’s into the EIS system or the state of Maine and the extra work that entails.  (believe me your not alone…other states have the same issue) So, of course I brought up the issue and talked in depth about the struggles you as Maine providers see. They would love to see so far though, we are still waiting on EIS specs in order to make your lives in Maine much easier.  We are still working on getting these for you, and as a former user of the EIS system, I know its annoying and I feel your pain.

What else is new…well here in Maine not much…in Therap lots and lots of things.

If your not using the independent home feature…check it out (super cool for supervisors),  also today…yes this morning there was a new feature that some of you may not have seen yet: a service verification record built within your ISP program  clinician reports.  I’ve looked at it and can see it helping some of your agencies out quite a bit.

Stay tuned