Kevin Lightle's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Western NY’

Just a quick note of thanks to our latest host for our March User Group Meeting, Genesee ARC in Batavia. We had 6 different agencies attending and a room full of people speaking Therap. Our agenda has been full as we have discussed a wide range of topics such as: 1115 Waiver, CHOICES, IRMA, Investigation Report formats, Hab. Plan updates, GER’s and on and on. If you would like to host a user group meeting in your area simply give me a call. Also, sign up now for any of these upcoming events;

April 4th – user group meeting – Center for Family Support, 333 7th Ave. 9th floor, NY 10001

April 17-20 – NYSACRA Annual Conference

April 25th – user group meeting – Community Services for the Developmentally Disabled, 1845 Kenmore Avenue, Kenmore, NY

May 15-16 – New York Regional Conference – Elmira

New York is very special to Therap and the providers of New York have made Therap special. We have listened to the needs, developed the products and as a result more people have joined the Therap family of services.  We are not through and because of this growth and future needs there are opportunities to for you to help Therap help providers. We are looking for unique people with unique skills in implementation, training, and support. If you want to be a part of a service that helps people help people then contact myself or Therap to discuss where you may have a new future.

Tuesday August 2nd was a beautiful day to be out in the Southern Tier of New York. It was on this day that Allegany ARC hosted our monthly Therap user group meeting. I have to get better at taking pictures so I can share with everyone the sites and the people who make up the great group of Therap user of New York. During our meeting we discussed new applications and had a lot of suggestions for the future. I take these suggestions and compile them with other user group comments and then these help drive future development.  I have seen where the comments of users have been implemented and likewise Therap continues to be enhanced for current and future users.

Here is a link for a future webinar on the National Direct Support Recognition week. Notice the leadership team is our own New Yorkers Joseph Macbeth, Executive Director, NADSP, and John Raffaele, Director of Staff Training & Development, New Hope Community, Inc.

Registration for NADSP webinar

Tuesday July 19th was our first meeting on implementation for People Inc.  It was quite a show with about twenty staff of People Inc. and from Therap; Justin, Maureen, Stephen and myself. Stephen guided us through the various modules being considered for priority while Maureen and I cheered him on. Justin went off to view their current system and afterwards we all got together to plan next steps.

The most interesting part of our meeting was where we met.  We met at the Museum of disABILITY History, and after our meeting was given a guided tour of the display and events they provide locally and nationally. Here is a link to their site, Museum of disABILITY History

What was interesting was how my travels and profession have been influenced by this history. It is worth your time to review where we have been and yet have so far to go.

Last Thursday over twenty people representing 4 agencies came together to discuss the inner workings of Therap. We have pages of ideas that we will compile with other user groups in order to submit to our programmers for future consideration. Over the past year we have held monthly user group meetings and using the information gleaned from these meetings has resulted in a better product for New York. For instance we now have an audit system that can forecast all items needed for being in compliance with OPWDD and OMIG requirements.

Our host for this latest event was The Resource Center located in Jamestown NY. Thanks to everyone there and I look forward to seeing more of the Therap family next month at Allegany ARC in Wellsville, NY.

On Friday afternoon I received an email letting me know Sazzad would be in town on Monday and Tuesday and would like to visit with customers of Therap. If you have been at a National Therap Conference or on a State project you know Sazzad is thoughtful and brilliant when it comes to understanding Therap customers and their needs.  It is always a thrill to have Sazzad at a meeting where we discuss applications and enhancements.

It only took a few calls and Monday the 27th was filled. Thanks to Madison/Cortland ARC and ARC of Onondaga for being hosts and working with us on various topics. Some of the discussions led to philosophy and internal agency policies and then there were several items that Therap could address that would better work for the users. Later that day a few more phone calls and our next agency host for Tuesday the 28th was Southeast Works. Tuesday morning we were met by their enthusiastic implementation team as well as fresh pastries and drinks – nice. Similar topics of Monday and they identified a glitch in a print document that was fixed overnight.

It was a packed couple of days but Therap’s hallmark is the support of customers and we remain committed to listening and responding to their needs