Certified Trainers Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Connecticut’

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.

Here at Oak Hill, we are forging ahead with the training component. My co-worker, Mary Beth has been hard at work (as usual) getting everything set up!!!

We are continuing to enjoy using the Time Tracking…it has been very helpful in tracking sleep for our individuals. Hopefully, over time, we will be able to expand our usage to other components of data such as mood scales.

It has also been interesting switching some of my data collection from a BER to an ISP. I still love the BER, but it has been easier for staff to use an ISP for certain things. I guess my confidence level is improving with using ISP’s!

Anyway…hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and enjoy the long weekend!!
Deanna

“A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains”

I found myself thinking about all of the things we can do in Therap and want our agency to do more and more!   Then I realized that our agency is the largest provider in Ct and I really need to relax a bit, and have some “Patience”!   Good things come in time!!

Here in CT, we are having our next CT User Group Meeting on March 15th, 2pm, at Oak Hill’s Campus in Hartford.  If you need some additional information, email me at julianm@ciboakhill.org. It is a nice time to share your wealth of knowledge within Therap!

Had a wonderful time at the conference in NJ in February.   I really enjoyed being in a hotel by myself and no one asking me to feed them, do laundry, and do homework, but don’t tell! I did have to lose 10lbs after those 3 days!

I really liked the Training Management Section and this is next on our list!  I am setting it up this month and any suggestions or helpful tips would be greatly appreciated from anyone out there using the system.  We are not using the entire section of having staff signing up for trainings, but we will be using this for staff to alert them when their training is due.  Think this would be great and  it will help staff from lapsing in their training when it is sitting right there on their First Pg!

Our agency’s motto is “Consistency” and we are currently doing alot of training for Supervisors, RN’s, and Behaviorists!    The ISP section has been working well and Supervisors enjoy the Individual List Pg!  RN’s are finishing entering medications and are working on getting everyone using the Appointment Section in Health Tracking.  Behaviorists are working on ISP’s for mood and anxiety scales, reinforcement schedules, and getting everything on Therap!  No More Paper!  Yeah!

So, I guess I need to have some “Patience”, it will all work out in the end!  We will get there!

Enjoy this weather, we have been very lucky this winter, just 2 snowstorms and one of them was before Halloween.  Amazing!

Mary Beth Julian-Supervisor, Oak Hill, Hartford, CT

There is so much to talk about regarding last weeks conference! First of all…another blogger wrote about all the eating! Totally true! Breakfast was just about over and voila! Delicious snacks graced the coffee table!! I, too, probably gained 10 pounds!!!

Two other things worth mentioning…I have two small kids (3 yrs and 10 months) and it was wonderful to be able to sleep in the hotel and get uninterrupted sleep!! That was fabulous and I most certainly did not tell my husband! Kind of felt a bit guilty!!

The other thing was being able to leisurely stroll through Target! I have not been able to do that without kids in 3 years!!! So much fun….I know….It’s the little things!!! Haha!!!

Anyway…I also learned a lot during those three days! Event summaries was very interesting to me. It is a simple little thing but something in which I forgot about. These summaries will surely help gather behavior info.

I also avoided the pivot table session! I start to glaze over when I hear the words, “pivot tables”!!! However, Brent told us that he also had difficultly with those until he was taught by Allison. Maybe I gather up courage and take another go at it!!

We also spent a lot of time going over the training component. This will be our agencies next thing to do. Looking forward to getting that set up and will keep everyone posted as to our progress!

Anyway…it was a great conference and am already looking forward to next year!
Deanna

On Monday, I conducted my first Webinar! It was a bit awkward only being able to speak “at” the people who called in. My topic was BER (setting up, collecting data, and reporting). Throughout this past year, I have taught this same topic to a “live” audience which was much easier to do. With the webinar I struggled a bit with not getting immediate feedback. Likewise, I wonder if the people who called in struggled to follow what I was trying to teach.

Hopefully, as I continue to do Webinars I will get better at it…hopefully!!!!

Deanna

Last week, therap hosted a regional conference in Meriden, CT. As usual, the days were filled with information and meeting new people! We were excited to discuss the new “time tracking” module as this will be quite beneficial to our data collection system especially for tracking sleep and eventually mood.

As Oak Hill forges ahead, we are now looking towards starting the MAR’s and training management system. What has been reassuring is that many of our “issues” or problems that we may encounter can be resolved and/or discussed at our CT user group meetings.

I also met a few other behaviorists and am looking forward to helping them learn about BER’s.

Finally….be on the lookout…..I have scheduled my webinar (topic: BER’s) for November!

See everyone soon!
Deanna

Hello! It’s been awhile since my last blog! I have been on maternity leave so things have been crazy at home…I feel like I come to work to relax!!

It was great to finally join in on a CT users group last Friday.  It was held at Oak Hill’s NEAT building and we had a pretty good turn-out.  We spent a lot of time discussing the MAR’s and how other agencies were getting along using them.  Hopefully, Oak Hill will be on board with the MARs very soon!

I also spent a bit of time going over how to do a BER and subsequent reporting. One agency will be starting with the BERs very soon!

Overall…I enjoyed talking about and learning what others were doing and brainstorming solutions to any problems.  Hopefully these meetings will continue over the next year!!
Deanna

Hello Everyone!
Oak Hill continues to move forward in the world of Therap! We are still waiting anxiously for the time tracking (AKA: Sleep/Mood) to be released. This will be a huge benefit to our participants!

We have also just learned that Oak Hill is hoping to host its first CT User Group! This is such exciting news as it will be another outlet to network and brainstorm! I’m sure there will be more info to follow.

On a personal note: I will be on maternity leave for the next few months but will be looking forward to “hosting” my first webinar upon my return. Hope everyone has a wonderful summer!!!
Deanna