Certified Trainers Blog

Gov. Cuomo recently took steps to enact legislation that would strengthen protections for the state’s most vunerable citizens. The Governor’s proposal would require the establishment of an agency charged with monitoring and enforcing laws in place to protect individuals with developmental and other disabilities.

The full article can be found here!

It has been suggested that I have been far too long quiet from
the CT blog.

For those people who know me well, they will never buy the
story that I am ever quiet.

However, there are times that I do prefer to be in the mode
of listen only, to learn from everyone else around me.

Allison’s role in keeping the certified trainers (official smarty
pants) on track, trained, and talking must be something akin to herding cats. If
you have never herded cats – check out the Cat Herder Video on You Tube and
have a good laugh.  Might be something else you want to try!

Allison – thanks for all you do. Keep after us, (okay so maybe just me) and we will
get the hang of this.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! While it is actually “celebrated” tomorrow, I just wanted to thank all the teachers out there!

At Oak Hill, while we all have various “titles” one of the most important hats we all wear is that of “Teacher”. While we don’t all work in classrooms, life in general is what we teach to our residents. How to maximize the quality and “normalcy” of their life is what makes us important educators.

In “therap world”, we are again looking forward to the CT user’s group to be held at Oak Hill in May. At these time, we all bounce ideas around and try to help each other make the most out Therap. It is also great to be able to meet with other folks from nearby agencies!

Will blog later about our group and looking forward to presenting at the CT Conference in September!

Until next time…..
Deanna

Testing. Testing. Is this thing on.

I am new to the great big sea of information that is Therap. I have been swimming in it for about a year and have come to realize a few things. First, the deeper into Therap one goes the more amazing it is. Second is that fact that once you step into the Therap waters you are carried swiftly (and gladly) into those deeper waters. And finally I have learned that no matter how deep you get there is always a friendly Therapite to guide you.

Until next time this is Craig, from the blue waters of the Pacific Northwest, signing off… Wait is this thing still on.

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

Heather Thornton is the Program Coordinator for Carmel Community Living Corporation (CCLC) in Boulder, Colorado. She is tenacious! It only took us about three months to finally get together! Heather is an Oklahoma transplant (though you could never tell by her accent!) and has lived outside of Denver for around two years. She handles all of her agency’s training and provider administration. She reports that CCLC is using just about everything except billing (but most likely not for long!). Heather is the second trainer from Colorado, joining Linda Medina as a representative of the Rocky Mountain state.

And she is a Therap queen…like someone else I know (Renee!!!).

Allison

Greetings…I will start out by calling Allison’s attention…”Hey Allison…I’m bloggin!!!”  :-)

I’m kinda nerdy and am always trying out new little ideas on my employees.  I recently read an article on having ones employees complete a ‘Motivation Map’.  Basically it consists of several different options that the employee rank from most important to least important.

There are multiple benefits to knowing what motivates an employee.  Knowing what is important to an employee and guarding against such things that would cause an employee from becoming dissatisfied with their employment.

I found the results from our internal poll quite interesting.  The top four motivators among my staff were Work/Home Life Balance, Personal Accomplishment, Friendliness of Co-Workers, and Interesting Work.  Fortunately, in our field we definitely have personal accomplishment and interesting work on our side!  That leaves two goals to ensure I am meeting the ‘needs’ of the employees.

Also included on the Motivation Map were job satisfaction.  On a scale of one to five, the satisfaction score was rated at 4.2!  The lowest score given was a 3, and that was only by one employee.  This appears to me that the motivators are obviously being successfully met based on the satisfaction of the employees.

The least important motivator among my staff was Promotion.  It would appear to me that I probably do not need to worry about replacing some staff, beings they are happy in their position, their needs are being met, and they don’t necessarily have a need to ‘move up the ladder’.

I also enjoyed looking at specific staff and some of their motivators.  Without giving detailed explanations of staff, looking at the most important motivator for each staff I was able to identify why it was important to them.  This assists in keeping each staff motivated and happy in their position.

Well..until next time..take care!

For the last three months I have recorded more than 1,500 miles traversing the back roads of Nebraska teaching Therap.  Many of those in attendance of my training are not only new to Therap, they have never used a computer before.  At the end of one class an elderly man approached me asking, “Can you show me how to turn on the computer”?  Thankfully the host agency willingly delivers basic computer skills training to their staff, so this gentleman can begin a new chapter with Therap at Mosaic.

I’m off the road for the next three months.  Staying close to home I will continue teaching Therap with the bonus of sleeping in my own bed at night.

We have a handful of new certified trainers to introduce…They will soon learn the secret handshake! There are several more but they are not official until I get a photo…they must prove their existence before they show up here.

Beverly Eschbach is the SECOND Beverly (our Beverlies are the best!) on the trainers’ gang. She is the Quality Management Coordinator for The Arc of Somerset. She knows tons about individual supports and has been one of their provider administrators since 2009. They are also tinkering with the Training Management System, Personal Finance and getting the MAR on board. She sounds super busy…AND SHE IS THE FIRST NEW JERSEY-AN to be a super Therap nerd. It’s like being an astronaut when you’re first at something…all new territory. One small step for Beverly, but one giant step for Therapkind.

Kristy Dominy is another first! She is from The Jessamine Place in Fitzgerald, Georgia, and is THE FIRST GEORGIAN to join the secret trainerhood. Kristy is their quality assurance nerd so you know she knows what’s up…and it sounds like Jessamine is using EVERYTHING they can find in Therap, including running the pilot for billing in the state of Georgia. She is as busy as Beverly!

David Van Hook is the IT Technician for Living Opportunities in Medford, Oregon. He has been with them for several years and was working as a support person before moving into the IT position. David actually has spent most of his time in the field of technology; Living Opportunities was his first experience in human services. He is presently becoming their central provider administrator, as well as trainer. Right now, he is figuring out the Training Management System…

More to come when they cough up some pictures.

Allison

If you are an avid news watcher or merely follow the water cooler talks, you most surely have heard the story about Akian.

Teacher/Bully: How My Son Was Humiliated and Tormented by his Teacher and Aide

I have watched this video a couple of times, as snippets in news coverage and such. Each time I find my mind heading in yet another direction: as a parent I cannot imagine such an event happening to my child. I wonder if it greatens when your child has a disability? Would I be content with an apology? I find my mind tossing on my employer hat and thinking could this happen in my agency, town? Knowing a little on how HR operates, how easy it is for other’s to judge without knowing the rules/laws. How would I feel as the boss who did not know this was occurring? A whirlwind of other thoughts rush over me, wonder if I have ever been audio taped, could I audio tape another person? Then I rush to my absolute intrigue with Autism specifically. I have always professed that people who are non verbal may very well (most likely do) under stand every word spoken. Did this teacher believe this or just not care? Or what if, just what if.. the video is not real?

Such an array of thoughts, so many stances that could be taken. At the end of the day it only reinforces the fact that as direct support professionals we are given such a responsibility when supporting  people.

So take a moment and look at all those great DSP’s around you and say thank you.