Certified Trainers Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Oregon’

Welcome to the herd two new smarty pants…both from Oregon (a very smart place, for sure!).

Susie Walton is the Associate Director for Pathway Enterprises in Medford, Oregon (way, way down south….). She knows LOTS AND LOTS and can lead you through billing and attendance, ISPs, provider administration and most other things you may come up with. I’m waiting on her blog (and dog pictures!).

As you can see above, Susie has excellent taste in friends.

Gina Loraine is of the highest quality…that is ‘cos she is the Training Quality Manager from Dungarvin in Portland, Oregon. She is never in her office as she is always running around teaching people things.

(I understand Gina.)

Gina also is a friend of Archie’s, having pug-sat in Salem…she, as Susie, has excellent taste in friends.

Welcome these guys! They are among the awesomest of the awesome…which would be all SIXTY (yes, I said it) of Therap’s Certified Trainers!

Allison

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.

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

Allison recently sent a gentle reminder that I have not yet posted a blog on the Certified Trainers’ Blog site. While I was well aware of my writer’s block, I greatly appreciate Allison’s nudge. Thanks!

Each of us, I am certain, feels that our job pulls us in many different directions and that our own situation must be unique and there can be nobody else who experiences the sudden and inexplicable transitions from one task to another on a daily basis. Well, I am here to tell you, if this is how you feel about most of your days, you are not alone. Not by any measure.

Typical day in the work life of Michelle Steele (over the past 4 months)

Who am I kidding? There is nothing “typical” about any of my days! Except for the randomness, the most consistent part of any of my days is my redundant referral to my calendar to remind myself of what I was SUPPOSED to be doing today! Let’s see if I can summarize what would be typical…

Arrival to work is hit or miss – dependent upon whether my son is self-managing, I overslept, the hot water heater is functioning, the train is impeding my path of travel and, of course, the functioning focus (or lack thereof) of my fellow commuters! Some days I can arrive right on time… some days, not so much! But I do (mostly) keep it within the navigational beacons of acceptance and my supervisor is quite understanding, particularly because of our recent move to a new home and all the unexpected obstacles that can impact the daily routine of preparation.

So, once I get to my desk and am focusing on getting focused… the priority is dealing with whatever is left from the previous day, usually waiting in my Outlook Inbox for completion before moving it to its appropriate storage folder (it’s a process!) From Therap requests and message notifications to requests for Training Registration to responses to my requests for payment of training classes from outside agencies to questions regarding standard operating procedures for trainers from distant locations to follow to Time Tracking inquiries to scanned copies of receipts for clients for whom I handle finances as the Representative Payee agent. Whew! I’m getting a little worn out reviewing what I dealt with just this morning! Maybe I should re-evaluate my self-imposed two-cups-of-coffee-per-day limit!

By the time my two cups have been long consumed and the now short stretch to the lunch break is rapidly approaching, I remember that I still need to work on that Therap Blog before Allison “gets fussy” with me. *sigh* What was on my calendar, anyway? Oh, yeah! I’m supposed to be processing training rosters from the other training locations! Dang! I wanted to get those American Red Cross certifications submitted first thing! (coworker): “Are you eating lunch with us in the lunch room today?” (me): “I wish. I need to get these certs submitted. Maybe tomorrow, thanks for asking!” Okay, switch focus for the moment… ! Yeah, their website has sustained vast improvement over the years, but it still is pretty finicky. Great. That took an entire hour! Now my eating schedule is out of kilter and I am starving! (RING) Oh, excuse me a moment, ”Good afternoon, this is Michelle with Renew Consulting. How may I help you? … Yes, absolutely. Have you had an opportunity to review our website? … Terrific! Just click on the training tab and take a look at our training schedule, then send an email to me with the details of who you need registered and at what location and I will then reply to your email with a confirmation and more detailed instructions…… ” I guess you don’t need to know the ENTIRE conversation, but that call comes in at least three to four times a day. I should just make a recording….

LUNCH TIME! Oh, wait. Everyone is back from lunch now. Cool, that means the microwave is free! I guess there are some perks to going an hour (or so) late. Alright, now to take a look at Therap and follow up on the notifications I received this morning. Oh, and that report that our Assistant Residential Director requested late yesterday. Logging into Therap (I really need to get my blog posted) … let’s get that report done. (Wow! That’s alot of information! Wait, that staff no longer works for us. What the heck? Hey! Neither does that person! Wait a minute, here. Oh, great. Evidently, not sure if any one of you is aware, but when you deactivate someone, if you do not remove a program from their privileges, then they show up on staff reports for that particular program. Alright, there’s a project that needs to be developed… ) Okay, export to Excel… edit and remove terminated staff… make the information easily readable… and, off to the requesting authority as an email attachment! And we can now take that task off the list!

I’m feeling hungry. Holy cow! It’s almost 2:00 and I never did go eat! I guess I could just have a piece of fruit and some crackers or trail mix. If I eat a meal now, I won’t be hungry at dinner. Alright, while I’m snacking, I can think of what I want to title my blog post…

(Incoming Skype call from Coastal Regional Coordinator) “Hi, Melissa, what’s up? … Yes, just be sure to scan them in color so we may reproduce them as a “certified” copy … If you can, that’s great, but if it presents a problem, I can split them from here … Yes, thanks … Okay, have a great afternoon … Bye.”

Sorry for the interruption. So, let’s see what’s on my calendar now. Oh, I need to upload last week’s certificates to SharePoint. Well, that’s gonna take a little time and I have three other messages that need return calls (and I really need to spend some time working on that blog), so I will work on the certs in a little while.

Okay, calls returned and those irons cooled from the hot fire… now to get those certs uploaded. Wow! It’s already after 3:30! Gotta get it in gear! And I should take a look at the registration for next week’s training and communicate with that area’s Regional Coordinator to be certain we have plenty of participants registered. (And I need to get on that blog.) First thing’s first… get SharePoint taken care of…

Alrighty then! It’s 4:25 now and I need to call the Regional Coordinator in the Northern Region to see about participants for next week’s training while I review the Registration spreadsheet. Okay, it looks like we are on track to hold training, so I will put on my calendar for tomorrow to send out reminder confirmation messages to the outside agencies… hey – there is my reminder to work on that Therap blog… I should get on that – CRIMINY! It’s 5:00! I guess I’ll have to snooze that one until tomorrow… (again…)

Gotta run!

Aside from saving my life, Susie Buchanan is ALSO the newest certified trainer! She is the Quality Assurance Specialist for Coast Rehabilitation Services in Warrenton, Oregon.

Tough life…on THE COAST OF OREGON.

Susie has worked in the field for a long time…she may get mad if I told you the dates (but email me if you’re curious!) in residential programs and within school districts.

She is a west coast girl, from California originally, and a bit of a gyspy…having moved from a mountaintop in Colorado back to the coast of Oregon where she has been with CRS for two years.

Watch for her insightful blogs…

Allison

Hello all,
Happy Friday to every one. So I am working on Payroll for my employees. On one of them when I go into get pay period calculation report it pulls up over time Subsidy Distributions instead of the report. This is only happening to one person out of 36 employees. Has anybody had this happen? I trying to find out why its doing that PLEASE HELP any answers or suggestions will be greatly appreciated Since Payroll is due on Monday Morning

Heather is the newest smarty pants to join the League of Extraordinary Trainers. She resides in Pendleton, Oregon, and for those of you keeping track, that makes six certified trainers from Oregon.

She is the administrative assistant and super-duper Therap guru for Trendsitions. They began using Therap last year and are using the vast majority of the system with the exceptions of the Training Management System and billing. Heather is working on those now.

I’ll plan on seeing her in New Jersey with the pod/herd/pack/murder/gaggle of other trainers. We had better see you there, too!

Allison

Ben Ferguson is the newest Certified Trainer and YET ANOTHER Oregonian…I think Oregon is winning the Certified Trainer thing. He makes the fifth trainer…and more to come…who reside in the lovely Pacific Northwest.

Ben works with Nina and Sheena over at Community Support Services in Salem, OR, and has been in the field as a Direct Support Professional for about five years. He helped them implement MARs and is well-versed in both medication administration and health tracking. He definitely has a unique perspective…and has already shared with you on the Certified Trainers’ Blog (he beat me to the punch!).

More from the Certified Trainers in 2012.

Allison

Gregg Staroscik works for Mosaic (and if that sounds familiar, you may remember Lorelei Lascko who ALSO works for Mosaic). Apparently, Therap geekiness is communicable over there. Gregg also states that Lorelei is indeed his hero…makes sense that he would emulate his hero in such a  PROFOUND and THERAPIFIC way (it is a word ‘cos I say so).Gregg used to be a drug and alcohol counselor and also has a long history as an IT guy; he likes the mixture of human services and technology. Perfect, given he is the Regional Therap Coordinator for Nebraska. Lorelei has him busy over  there, launching multiple agencies all over the plains…He definitely has an interesting take on GERs, that is for sure…and he looks like a novelist in his picture so that makes him even more awesome…

Nathan Kennedy works for State Operated Community Programs in Oregon and is their super duper Therap provider administrator. They are already live with a handful of their residential programs and are ramping up to implement it across all of their locations (with a little help from me ). Nathan quickly won me over with his love of all things Apple…so it is clear that he knows what’s up. And Nathan has some very interesting ideas regarding GERs as well.

And we are not done yet…there is one more:

Michelle Steele is the Human Resources Coordinator and Therap Administrator for Renew Consulting in Albany, Oregon. She has bounced around quite a bit in the past few months from support to quality assurance to human resources and to Therap. That is because she is a smahhhhhty pants.

Watch for blogs and webinars in the new year from these guys and all the other exceptionally brilliant, good looking, and warm and fuzzy group of Certified Trainers.

Allison

Craig works at Partnerships in Community Living (PCL) in Monmouth, Oregon. PCL has been a good friend to Therap for about six years and have a lot of smarty pants working for them (several of whom are and were certified trainers!).

Craig is the “Residential Technical Support Specialist”…he got tired after saying it…we decided it translates to “Therap dude.” Now he is a certified Therap dude.

He will be helping out at the Oregon conference on this Thursday and Friday so drop by and say hello! It will be a lot of fun as always.

Allison