Recent News

Celebrating Disability Pride Month!

Happy Disability Pride Month! Celebrated each year in July, Disability Pride Month was established to recognize the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990. This month makes space to honor the history, achievements, and experiences of the disability community and break down the stigmas surrounding disability. Disability Pride Month also encourages us all to identify where ableism is still present in the systems and environments in which we live and consider ways to improve accessibility for all. Save the date for The Colfax Center’s celebration of this month and our community members with disabilities on Saturday, July 29! The celebration will feature speed friending, a resource fair, food, and performances. Follow the link below to learn more about this event and a peer support group.

https://lgbtqcolorado.org/event/hybrid-disability-peer-support-group/2023-07-14/

QA COrner

Federal Final Settings Rule

In 2014 the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services published the final settings rule requiring home and community-based services (HCBS) to meet certain criteria. This rule ensures that all people receiving HCBS waiver services have:
-Access to the benefits of community living
-Live and receive services in integrated and non-institutional settings.

Colorado has worked to transition into compliance with this rule over the last several years. All agencies (including Support Inc.) and all settings (residential, day services, employment) are required to be in full compliance with the rule by March 2023. Click on the links below to learn more about Federal Final Settings Rule.

ØCommunity Integration Tips

ØFAQ Part 1: General Questions

ØFAQ Part 2: Follow-up on General Questions

ØFAQ Part 3: Lease & Residential Agreements

ØFAQ Part 4: Employment-Related Services

ØFAQ Part 5: Myth Busters

ØResidential Setting Training

ØNon-Residential Setting Training

ØRights Modification Training

ØIndividual Rights & Rights Modification- Providers & CMA’s

ØIndividual Rights & Rights Modification- Families & Guardians

ØIndividual Rights & Rights Modification- Members

ØPerson-Centeredness & Requirements

ØUnderstanding Guardianship & Final Settings Rule

ØNational health Institute Writing Respectfully: Person-First and Identity-First Language

ØSocial Work Today Person-Centered Thinking in Developmental Disabilities- Dreaming Possible Dreams

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June Host Home Provider of the Month

We want to recognize and congratulate our June Host Home Provider of the Month- David Sakul! David was nominated by his Residential Coordinators, Rich and Anna. David has been a provider with Support Inc. for many years and does a great job working with the individuals in his home and completing compliance items. Even though David is a very experienced Provider, he continues his effort in getting better by joining the Town Hall meetings or other opportunities the agency provides to learn new things and keep up to date with the requirements asked of HHP’s. David does a wonderful job in getting the individuals in his home out into the community and supporting them in the things they like to do. They have been on several trips to different areas in the state and out of state, and even went on an Ocean Cruise last year. It was the trip of a lifetime for the individuals in services. We appreciate how he sends us pictures of the things his guys get to do when traveling. David has always been very pleasant to work with and is an excellent team player. He consistently communicates the needs of his individuals and supports them with whatever they need. He strives to keep the individuals in his home active and involved in community activities. It is always wonderful to see the fun activities and travels that he takes the guys on. Thank you, David, for being an important part of the Support Inc team and for caring so much about the individuals you work with. We appreciate everything you and your family do. Congratulations on being the June Host Home Provider of the Month!

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Operations Team News

The Operations or “Ops” Team consists of our six Associate Directors (ADs) of Residential Services, the AD of Day Services, the AD of Nursing and me, Director of Residential Services.

The most recent change within our team is the addition of Interim AD (former Senior Residential Program Coordinator) Paulyn Matibag on the Denver Metro 3 (DM3) Team. Paulyn will be covering for DM3 AD Samantha Cordova while she is on leave. We expect Samantha back in October.

As we enter summer, we wanted to share with you some of the things we’re focusing on as a team over the next few months.

The first half of the year we rolled out some big changes including health tracking and the appointment module including the use of Scomms. It was a lot! Not to say you won’t see any changes this quarter, but we are intentionally holding off on large-scale projects so we can all collectively catch our breath. We will take this time to hone our processes related to quarters 1 & 2 changes and recommit to providing quality services that are above reproach to all our stakeholders.

Whether it’s travel, pool-time, or a staycation – I hope you all find some time to relax and recharge this summer.

Erik Nielsen, Director of Residential Services

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Support Inc. Staff Honored

We want to recognize and congratulate Support Inc. Residential Coordinator, Richard Shaw, and Host Home Providers, Diana and Kenny Wijaya, for their amazing work. They were recently honored by Kirk of Bonnie Brae UCC.

From: Vicki Wright and Ann Karlberg, Guardian designees for Kirk of Bonnie Brae UCC.

For the past 38 years, the Kirk of Bonnie Brae UCC has served as the legal guardian for Dean McEahern who receives Support Inc. services. The mission of the church was initiated by a passionate member of our congregation, Carol Rickus, who was called to be God’s servant to the developmentally disabled. Through her activism, Carol inspired the Kirk to become the legal guardian for Dean, who at the time, was only 19 years old, without a family to advocate for him and dependent on the system for his every need.

Ann- Fortunately, Dean began receiving services through Support, Inc., an agency that provides comprehensive community-based services including residential care, a day program and clinical services. His residential program coordinator, Richard Shaw, has worked with Dean for 18 years. Richard’s consistent and dedicated oversight of Dean’s services has provided Dean with the stability he has needed to really thrive. In addition to the excellent residential care Dean receives, his life is enriched through the experiences and opportunities available to him through Support, Inc.’s fine day program. Richard has been instrumental in making sure Dean has received all the resources needed to ensure the best quality of life. We are so grateful to Richard for his devoted service.

Vicki- To tell you a little bit about Diana and Kenny, some of the most compassionate Host Home Providers/caregivers we have come across in all our many years in social work. They are Indonesian by birth and came to the US in the early 2000s when Indonesia was ridding itself of Christians and other non-Muslims. As refugees, they were dependent upon Indonesian friends who came before them. They came to Florida, Virginia, then Denver, where they were told economic conditions were better. Their network in Denver suggested that Diana apply to be a host home provider, as she was new to the community and pregnant at the time. So here they are, 20 years down the road, with 3 disabled adults living in their home, and Dean has been with them for 15 years. They puree his food, feed him, thicken his water so he can drink, help him drink, even had adjustments made to their shower so they can keep him clean more easily. And I think this is Kenny’s favorite part—they take him on vacation and to local events such as Red Rocks.

The Kirk is proud of its guardianship ministry, but we couldn’t do it without the partnership of Support, Inc. and the devoted service of Richard Shaw and Diana and Kenny Wijaya. Their committed efforts have been crucial to Dean’s well-being and very much a part of this ministry. On May 21st, all three were honored for their work with a certificate of appreciation from the congregation. Congratulations Richard, Diana and Kenny!!

 

QA COrner

Quality Assurance News & Updates

Coming July 2023: New Relias Training Plans.

At the end of 2022 we began an organization wide training project. This project included cleaning up our Relias (our E Training platform) system, reorganizing Relias hierarchies, developing a backend connection between Relias and ADP (our payroll and HR management system) and redesigning our training plans. We have reorganized our Relias hierarchies to assure each employee and contractor was attached to a supervisor. The Human Resources (HR) team is in the process of changing all employees and contractor’s usernames to align with ADP ID numbers. If you have not yet received your new Relias login name, please contact your supervisor. The HR team is also making the final backend connections to integrate ADP and Relias. The final piece of this will be rolling out the new training plans. We have developed new training plans based on job title in an effort to ensure new employees and contractors joining the organization receive training relevant to the work they do. We also streamlined annual training requirements for all positions. The new training plans will be rolled out in July 2023. Watch for emails from the Quality Assurance (QA) team with an official go-live date and a comparison of the changes based on your job title. If you have any questions please reach out to your supervisor, the HR team or the QA team.