Pain
Opioid use
Anger
Mood (PHQ-9 and GAD-7)
Substance abuse
Dyscontrol (Managing emotions)
Sleep 
Cognitive function
Level of Disability (MPAI)
Social isolation
Vitals
Activity level
Diet/Nutrition
Medication adherence

For those looking for unique surveying/data needs, CreateAbility’s team of talented coders and developers can provide custom surveys at an additional cost.

Curious as to how you can unleash the power of data for better outcomes? Download the brochure on the right panel of our virtual booth!

MeMinder
MeMinder is CreateAbility’s answer to those with executive functioning challenges post TBI and helps your patients with the alerts and instruction they need to return to independence.

Schedule your patient’s daily to-do’s and monitor their progress/setbacks in real-time on your clinician dashboard.

Choose tasks from our library of over 200+ pre-created tasks in audio, talking pictures, or full video demonstration modes or pull out your phone, record a custom instruction of your own – and simply download it to your patient’s daily list!

Learn more here or download the MeMinder brochure in the right panel of our virtual booth!

Flourish
Flourish is a person-centered planning app that simplifies the process of establishing goals for your patients by breaking them into more actionable steps.

The app measures progress at each stage of the person-centered care plan and equips staff with a way to manage plans remotely and in real-time. Flourish also generates documentation necessary for annual reporting.

This mobile app helps your patients:

Keep their goals in the forefront of their minds as they move forward in their health journey and keeps them motivated and engaged in the process.

Stay on task with all of the smaller goals they need to accomplish each day in order to achieve the larger ones.

Learn more here or download the Flourish brochure on the right panel of our virtual booth!

The post Technology Solutions for People with Traumatic Brain Injuries appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

So how can vision boards benefit the person-centered planning process? Simply put, they assist in:

Establishing Goals
Vision boards can provide a starting point for developing your initial person-centered plan. For those who already have their goals in mind – creating a vision board provides a motivation tool. For those who are unsure – vision boards help define where they want to see themselves in the future.

Clarifying Goals
Beginning the process by creating these bigger picture endings makes it easier for support staff to be able to back-step to create all necessary steps needed to make the end visions a reality. For the individual served, it reduces the “overwhelm” that the end-goal may create by clarifying the short- , mid-, and long-term steps necessary to achieve the goals on their vision board.

Focusing on Goals
Let’s face it, life gets hectic. Often times, we get buried in managing pop-up responsibilities and forget our ultimate goals. (The things that, when accomplished, actually give us intrinsic value and meaning.) For the person served, having a vision board in plain sight each day helps them align their daily to-do’s and activities to reach the important goals.

Achieving Goals
Positive feelings and reward… if there weren’t any, what would be the driving factor to accomplish things? Achieving goals and feeling those good “feels” are reinforcement for continuing the goal-setting process and growing and evolving as human beings.

Maintaining Goals
Again, life can sometimes interfere with our goals. Vision boards help people get back on the track and align ourselves with the goal’s action plan.

Flourish, CreateAbility’s person-centered planning app is a modern vision board app that the individuals served can carry in their pockets each day. In addition to grouping their pictures, it talks to them, and reminds them about the things they need to accomplish each day towards these goals. For the support staff, it provides the foundation to establish, clarify, and help their client’s focus and achieve goals with the added benefit of providing documentation needed for annual reporting.

If you are looking for a way to simplify your person-centered planning process, please reach out to us at info@createabilityinc.com.

The post What is a “Vision Board” and What Role Can It Play in the Person-Centered Planning Process? appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Here is how they work through the lifecycle of the people you serve:

Person-Centered Planning

Flourish
Many agencies include person-centered planning within the career planning and exploration process.  Flourish is an app based on positive psychology to reinvigorate and provide a foundation for the person-centered planning process.

For direct support professionals, Flourish serves as a tool to establish and manage a succinct set of goals for the people they serve to work towards. In addition to helping clients reap the intrinsic value of accomplishing goals, the technology also hosts functionality that helps agencies and organizations meet reporting and documentation requirements.

Flourish also benefits the individual served by providing an outlet to express their individuality; providing a dashboard for their pictures, interests and goals that they carry like a virtual ID on their phones or devices. This, in turn, helps their care providers understand them on a deeper level and customize their interactions to get the most out of their abilities, avoid crises, and create sustainable relationships. 
Flourish Explainer Video: https://youtu.be/UMpkn_1OZ3U 

Pre-Employment and Employment

Employment Pathfinder 
Employment Pathfinder helps job developers, employment specialists, and counselors quickly assess the job seeker’s readiness, job interests, and relative skills. The job seeker uses the Employment Pathfinder App, while staff weigh in using the companion cloud-based dashboard. 

This helps create a comprehensive assessment that leads to a detailed report describing any gap areas and the strategies, tactics and tools they might use to bridge them. 

Ever since the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) was signed into law in 2014, staff have used a variety of methods to help fulfill the ‘Gold Standard’ of Competitive Integrated Employment – real jobs, with real wages. Employment Pathfinder pulls these strategies together into one integrated platform. The system is designed around the principles of self-determination and informed choice to help the job seeker play an active role in the career discovery and planning process.  
Employment Pathfinder Explainer Video: https://youtu.be/aIK3SBItQFM 

Non-Invasive Surveillance 

Evalu8NOW
Evalu8NOW is a series of web-based, avatar-led assessments and interventions that allow job coaches the ability to monitor important mental health criteria that may influence the employee’s work performance and/or satisfaction with their job.  Avatars provide a neutral and non-intrusive surveying environment for the employee that yields honest answers and increases data integrity. In turn, Evalu8NOW allows job coaches the ability to check in with employees at a much higher frequency than before, thus, yielding more transparency into the setbacks and challenges and employee might be experiencing in between scheduled visits. Ultimately, job coaches become privy to real-time data and get the opportunity to ward off crises before it happens and increase the efficacy of their person-centered plan.
Evalu8NOW Explainer video:  https://youtu.be/2BCkd9RHXGQ 

Typical ADL or On- the- job task prompting 

MeMinder
MeMinder, an assistive technology used in both the residential and employment setting, is a dynamic, talking pictures to-do list that both prompts and provides instructions for daily tasks. Ideally developed to fade from human to natural supports, MeMinder affords employees the ability to get the instructions they need in the format best-suited for them:  full video modeling (when they need details on how to perform a task), talking pictures format, to audio-only sequences of prompts (as they become familiar with the tasks).

The Task Tracker Dashboard affords job coaches the ability to view completed, time-stamped tasks and monitor both progress and setbacks of one – or many – employees in real-time. In addition, its voice-to-text task analysis allows easy task setup and job coaches can pull pre-created tasks from a library of 200+ tasks, a shared/public repository of tasks, or simply create and record their own, custom tasks.
MeMinder Explainer Video: https://youtu.be/LTC56auYUUg 

Emotional Regulation  

OnTracker 
Frequently, people with IDDs also have challenging behaviors which can disrupt the process of establishing and achieving their goals. 

In answer to this challenge, CreateAbility has developed OnTracker; an app that monitors whether the person’s thoughts and actions are aligned with their current goals. By running on popular Apple and Android tablets, OnTracker is a coach they can check in with 24/7 to help them self-regulate after experiencing an emotional triggering event, such as a conflict with a roommate or co-worker, or missing a bus on a rainy day.

After rating their feelings, the app enables them to employ the appropriate ‘skills’ to help them independently cope with their situation. The skillset includes important criteria such as creating a clear picture of a particular situation, putting emotions in perspective, taking positive actions, problem solving, relationship care…and more!
OnTracker Explainer Video:  https://youtu.be/dMa5xiByZYg 

Communication  

AvaTalk interactive communication portal
Frequently, the people in the circle of care around the individual served with an IDD prefer to communicate via text messaging, while the individual served prefers other forms of communication. Avatalk may be a solution in these scenarios. A slide show of pictures of favorite people and memories helps keep the person calm. When the team wishes to check in with the individual, they send a text with the question-and-answer choices, and this gets rendered as their favorite avatar, which speaks the question-and-answer choices, and returns the selected answer as text.
How it Works: https://youtu.be/d0-nn8hSfW0

The post Enabling Technology Through the Lifecycle of the People You Serve appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Fast forward to today, where our nation’s businesses are facing staffing challenges that could serve as a catalyst in the inclusive employment movement. We all know that there is a wonderful, untapped source for employment in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that can fill these positions. But how do provider agencies adequately serve clients and optimize efforts in the inclusive employment movement while experiencing employee shortages of their own?

In times where providers are trying to do “more with less”, technology can help providers/job coaches:

• Streamline onboarding processes for new job coaches/staff.
• Minimize time spent in training employees by cutting out antiquated, manual processes.
• Monitor progress and setbacks of multiple employees on one dashboard. 
• Reduce time and money spent traveling from location-to-location to put out “fires”.
• Motivate employees to set and achieve goals.
• Automate fading techniques that help employees rely less on job coaches.
• Reduce the numbers of crises at the workplace.
• Create more satisfying and sustainable job opportunities for the clients they serve; reducing employee turnover.

It seems as if the pandemic has created a “perfect storm” of sorts in the industry we know and love – and technology is just the thing to keep us afloat!

If you need help keeping your head above the water – please reach out to us to learn more about assistive technology and its role in making strides in the inclusive employment movement – even when we are experiencing shortages, ourselves.

Until next time…

The post Working Smarter, Not Harder, in a Post-Pandemic Employment Landscape appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Technology can play a very helpful role in times, such as these. While technology is never a 100% replacement for human interaction, here are a few ways you can utilize technology solutions during a staff shortage to keep afloat:

1. Remote supports can allow you to monitor more than one person at a time. Many technology solutions like MeMinder and Evalu8Now allow care providers and job coaches the ability to schedule activities and monitor the progress or setbacks of one, or multiple clients in between face-to-face visits to ensure their clients are both safe and productive.
   
   
2. Task prompting solutions can help keep your clients on track with their responsibilities in non-supervised periods. Clients that lead semi-independent lives often need supervision simply to ensure that they are doing what needs to be done each day to take care of themselves. These are the perfect candidates for task prompters, such as MeMinder, that will provide reminders and instruction in the absence of their caregiver.
   
   
3. Additional communication tools can help you quickly and effectively check-in when you are unable to physically be with your clients. When the need for a quick check-in or follow up call needs to take place, technology can provide a time-saving alternative that keeps communication times tight.  Solutions like avatalk offer a fun and engaging way for care providers and job coaches to ask a question via (anonymous) text – and converts it into an avatar-led format on the client’s device where they can respond rapidly.  (See how it works here)
   
   
4. Remote supports can reduce the number of time-consuming crises by proactively addressing your clients’ wellbeing.  Technology solutions like Evalu8Now can provide non-intrusive, avatar-led check-ins on many concerns such as management of anxiety, anger, sleep, medication adherence, and more. When the client takes a quick survey and the score identifies the need, they can transition into interventions to help them manage while the system alerts staff so that they may call or visit and ward off crises before it they happen.
   
   
5. Assistive technologies can help reduce the amount of time it takes to onboard new staff. CreateAbility’s Flourish and Employment Pathfinder provide a foundation of client background and knowledge that helps new staff members know how to work best with clients, their preferences, triggers, talents and abilities. Entering into a staff/client relationship armed with this information, staff are able to settle more efficiently into their new positions.
   
   
6. Save time spent doing reporting and documentation.
   How much time do you spend updating reports and reporting documentation to requiring agencies? The right technology with reporting can help you reduce this burden, freeing you up to do the things that only you can do.

If your organization is facing staffing challenges in the current job market and you need to fill the gaps, reach out to us at info@createabilityinc.com and let’s explore the ways we can help you manage these times while maintaining your normal level-of-care you extend to your clients.

Until next time!

The post 6 Important Ways Assistive Technology Can Help Organizations During Staff Shortages appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

INDIANAPOLIS, June 8th, 2021 – CreateAbility Concepts, Inc., a technology company located in Indianapolis, was recently awarded a portion of the Second Chance Grant provided by the State of Florida’s Department of Justice for the replication and use of their MyBrain technology.  CreateAbility’s MyBrain will be utilized as technology solution that will ultimately, help reduce the rate of recidivism in youth ages 14-18.     

Modern research identifies traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in approximately 50% of youth who have been in juvenile detention centers or prison.  The neurocognitive changes that occur from TBIs can commonly result in substance abuse problems, disrupted relationships, employment issues, and extra challenges in learning. When not managed effectively, these issues decrease the efficacy of reform efforts. The Second Chance Grant was designed to proactively survey and monitor the youth offenders’ health, well-being, and other factors before they act out, re-offend and/or break the conditions of their release.   

CreateAbility’s Role in the Second Chance Youth Re-entry Program: 
Using a tablet, the youth offender will use CreateAbility’s MyBrain app for surveillance. For example, MyBrain will provide regular, intervallic measure of pain level, opioid use, anger and irritability, mood, substance misuse, affect dysregulation, sleep-related impairment, cognitive functioning, level of TBI-related disability, social isolation, and self-efficacy for managing one’s own emotions.  

These assessments can be delivered in a way that matches the youth’s ability, such as via an App with a built-in screen reader, a simplified web form, or as a chat bot. When the youth scores high in a risk area, interventions are provided to help them self-manage their anger, anxiety or depression. Alerts are sent to staff if certain answers indicate an immediate need, such as suicidal ideations, or the youth is obtaining drugs from a different source than the pharmacy. 

MyBrain technology was created in 2018 and now serves as the foundation of CreateAbility’s avatar-led assessment system called Evalu8Now. Evalu8NOW is currently being used in the private TBI sector as well as the intellectual disabilities community.  

Please contact info@createabilityinc.com for more information on what MyBrain technology can do for your data collection and person-centered care plan initiatives.   

About CreateAbility Concepts, Inc. 
CreateAbility strives to improve the dignity, security, and quality of life for people who are trying to maintain varying degrees of independence, but who need assistive technologies. Our mission is to create innovative products that help them flourish beyond their current capability. Our interactive health and safety monitoring software solutions help caregivers deliver an affordable blend of care, 24/7 that nurtures independence. We serve caregivers, agencies, and organizations devoted to helping older adults, people with intellectual disabilities, brain injuries, and behavioral health issues. 

Contact: 
Kerri Pinger 
Marketing & Communications Manager  
CreateAbility Concepts, Inc. 
info@createabilityinc.com 

***************************** 

The post CreateAbility Concept’s MyBrain Technology Accepted into Florida DOJ’s Plans to Reduce Recidivism appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

What is your number and how do you handle the excess?

In a time where providers and agencies are facing staffing challenges, this rationing scenario is getting more prevalent as care providers’ and job coaches’ “plates” are more full than ever. Many are turning to technology to offload some of the manual and less-demanding tasks to enhance their efficiency.

A couple of examples of this are:

Reporting and documentation.
These are time-consuming and antiquated processes. Technology does both the documenting and the storage and retrieval for you!

Check-ins that can be completed less-intrusively.
For clients that are more independent, a technology check-in a couple of times between face-to-face visits can free up travel time for care providers and job coaches.

Troubleshooting.
Care providers and job coaches spend a lot of time running between locations to trouble shoot when often times, assistive technology can provide the prompting and instruction they need to get things done on their own.

In my own life, technology has enabled me to offload about 40% of the daily tasks that don’t require face-to-face involvement.

Are you struggling to ration your energy to accomplish all of your daily to-do’s? How many items can you handle in a day – and is it possible?

If you would benefit from a reduction in your/your staff’s workload, please call us at 317.578.6670 to discuss how assistive technology can help!

Until next time,

Stephen Sutter

The post Multitasking as a Care Provider or Job Coach: How Do You Ration Your Time? appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

It increases data integrity.  
When engaging in an in-person survey, the people taking the assessment tend to “filter” their answers to please (or not upset) the survey administrator. In written surveys, the survey recipient may become overwhelmed, challenged, or bored with the test-taking process and answer hastily in order to finish.  

Avatar-led assessments provide a neutral environment for people to focus on the question at hand and answer in an honest manner without any hesitations or fears. Also, studies have shown that self-reported daily data is more reliable because there is less reliance on the memory of the person served. 

It increases data collection consistency and efficacy. 
Assessments/surveys are administered in the same methodology each-and-every time they are given. There are no changes in tone or inflection therefore, providing a less leading and more unbiased method for disseminating critical questions to the people you serve.   

This translates to more accurate results that opens the door for higher quality person-centered care planning, as well as better organizational management.  
 
It’s less intrusive to the person being served.  
When the person being served is trying to achieve more independence, another check-in or questionnaire might become both taxing and intrusive into their daily lives.   

Avatar-led assessments can simply “pop up” during the course of their day or week – and not feel less like supervision or a chore.   
 
Its customization features make it more accessible to a wider audience.  
For those who tend to get agitated with certain conditions or people, avatar-led assessments allow for the person being served to voice their opinion on when they prefer to take their survey as well as who administers it.  Having the ability to customize their avatar lessens their agitation with the survey and increases their engagement. For those who have autism, avatars are available that do not make eye contact with the test-taker and as the avatar speaks the survey and answer options, they can also be a great option for those who struggle with reading or have vision challenges.  

While real people cannot be replaced by technology in the overall care of people with intellectual developmental disabilities, you can most certainly bring in artificial intelligence to bridge gaps in the care/safety plans of the individuals served.  

Learn more about the wide range of avatar-led assessments available to your organization here.  

The post The Benefits of Avatar-Led Data Collection appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

P = Positive emotion

E = Engagement

R = Relationships

M = Meaning

A = Accomplishment

H = Health & Vitality 

The PERMAH approach to wellbeing is also mentioned in Art and Thane Dykstra’s “A NEW PLAN: Using Positive Psychology to Renew the Promise of Person-Centered Planning.”  As President and CEO of Trinity Services, Inc.  and contributors at High Tide Press, Thane and Art respectively, have an extensive history of working with people with intellectual disabilities and creating training resources for professionals within the industry. The PERMAH approach, which is referenced in the book, is a fundamental driver of FLOURISH, an app bore from a collaboration between CreateAbility Concepts, Inc. and High Tide Press to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through positive psychology.   

FLOURISH offers features that help clients define what they are grateful for (positive emotion), become more engaged in what they desire (engagement), set and achieve goals (accomplishment), increase confidence through achieved goals (meaning), improve the relationship between client and care provider (relationships), and experience more happiness (which is always good for your health). 

To learn more about how you can help your clients FLOURISH and lead happier, more meaningful lives, click here.

The post The Effects of Positive Psychology on Wellbeing appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Technology can optimize time management for the organization utilizing it that ultimately adds more money to the bottom line of the agency. Agencies can then re-allot the savings towards retaining and/or hiring new staff, improving the lives of the people they serve, or increasing the reach of the technology to more of their clients resulting in more…you guessed it…savings.

Here’s a prime example of how one of CreateAbility’s clients uses assistive technology to save their organization money:

A state agency has selected 10 of the people they serve who they feel are ready (and desire) to have less supervision during the course of the day. By utilizing MeMinder for two hours per day to implement a daily chore routine, this agency is able to remotely supervise each client for two hours of the day. This frees up their DSPs to do other things they have otherwise not been able to during a normal business day like paperwork, meetings, and training.

Here is how the savings breaks down in this instance:

DSP pay savings:  $20/hr x 2 hours saved per day x 5 days a week = $200/savings per week

x 10 persons served = $2000/week in savings

x 26 weeks (length of pilot) = $52,000 total savings – $1,249.50 (cost of MeMinder x 10 people served = $749.50, plus $50 Amazon Fire for 10 people = $500)

Total, 6-month savings for agency:  $50,750.50.

The math is relatively simple in this case, especially since the majority of CreateAbility’s technology solutions are one-time expenses. (The return on subscription-based products complicates this equation a bit.) In the end, the big question is what would you do with an extra $50k?  

Oh, and the people served appreciated the increased independence. How do we put a value on that?

If you would like to speak to us about how to use assistive technology to save time/money, please email us at info@createabilityinc.com.

Read about other ways that MeMinder is helping organizations save time and money here. 

The post Assistive Technology: How Saving Time Equates to Saving Money appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.