Technology grants Archives - CreateAbility Inc

The Ease of Context-based Cueing

cciadmincca1 — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 18:51:51 +0000

What do you do when you can’t get your clients (or kids) to remember their daily to-do’s? How can you help those with higher needs feel accomplished and responsible?

At CreateAbility, we believe that the power of enabling technology is best described in a real-life scenario of our solutions.

Here is the story of Christy (Provider), Isaak’s mom (Parent) and Isaak(Individual Served) and an example of how the ease of CreateAbility’s Qminder App helps providers and parents offer task-prompting that everyone can latch onto.
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Isaak’s mom and Christy, his in-home care provider, had tried a variety of approaches to remind Isaak on basic ADLs, oral hygiene, and medication usage. After several failed attempts, exhausted staff efforts and multiple different “reminder” formats, they discovered CreateAbility’s Qminder App for easy task-prompting.

They were thrilled to learn that after downloading the app, it only took a matter of minutes to record video and/or audio prompts for Isaak, assign them to a QR code, print the code and stick it in the appropriate locations where he need prompts or information!

Isaak takes to the App and adopts it in no-time-flat. He loves how he just aims his app at the special QR code and it starts playing his special task instructions or personal messages without even needing to tap on any link.

At work, Isaak’s productivity has soared since he started using Qminder to locate himself in the warehouse, to get reminders on how to use equipment, and the safe usage of various chemicals required in his duties.

At his home, Isaak’s mom frequently leaves him uplifting personal messages to keep his content fresh and engaging. (She also finds it fun and entertaining!)

Mom and Christy love that they can see when Isaak scanned a code; a cue to let them know he’s working on his to-dos.

Christy is so enamored with the ease of Qminder that she develops special QR codes for her colleagues to scan when entering individuals’ residences that informs them of policies and procedures.

Positive outcomes for the individual served – positive outcomes for parents and providers. (Win-Win-Win!)

For more information about Qminder, click here.

The post The Ease of Context-based Cueing appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Putting the Person Back in Person Centered Planning

cciadmincca1 — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 18:14:53 +0000

What exactly does a person centered planning app look like? How does it increase positive outcomes for the people you serve?

At CreateAbility, we believe that the power of enabling technology is best described in a real-life scenario of our solutions.

Here is the story of Jack (Provider) and Juanita (Individual Served) and an example of how the CreateAbility’s Flourish App transforms the lives of the individual served – and the quality of care provided by the provider.

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Jack is a QDDP at a large provider of IDD services. He was quiet familiar with the annual process of reviewing everyone’s person centered plan. He noticed that each year they use their standard review method, the plans would become more extensive. Jack and his colleagues seemed to spend less and less time verifying the plan with each person served by his agency. In simpler terms, as the plan became larger, the person’s involvement with their own plan became smaller.

Juanita never really felt like she was part of her plan until she started using her Flourish App 6 months ago. Now she can carry her plan in her pocket! As it serves as a talking vision board of sorts, Juanita feels more engaged with her plan each day. Flourish houses multiple places on the app where she conveys her likes, dislikes and goals. She can even store pictures of her family, friends, pets, or anything else that gives her joy and keeps her motivated to achieve her goals.

Just like everybody else, Juanita is thrilled that she can now create quick to-do items! Not only does she know what her near-term, mid-term and long-term goals are, she loves that she is prompted each day on exactly what steps she needs to do to work towards the accomplishment of her goals.

Jack and his colleagues like that they can track Juanita’s engagement with the app. The to-do items, as each task that she has accomplished are all presented via the dashboard. Jack takes a PDF snapshot of her plan and adds it to her electronic health record.

Positive outcomes for the individual served – positive outcomes for providers. (Win-Win!)

For more information about Flourish, click here.

The post Putting the Person Back in Person Centered Planning appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

What is the Difference Between Assistive and Enabling Technology?

cciadmincca1 — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 13:09:58 +0000

Since the events surrounding 2020, there has been a significant rise in providers’ interest in remote monitoring. Further, there has been a broader acceptance and use of the term “enabling technology” when it comes to remote supports.

But what IS the difference between “assistive” and “enabling” technology?

Here is a brief explanation to help you understand the difference:

Enabling Technology
Enabling technology refers to any type of technology that enhances the overall capabilities of individuals, regardless of whether they have disabilities or not. The primary goal of enabling tech is to provide tools, systems, or devices that improve the quality of life, improve efficiency, and increase independence for its users. It aims to empower individuals to perform tasks more effectively/efficiently; increasing their productivity and access to information.

Examples of enabling technology include smartphones, tablets, wearables, apps and computer software and any other technology that can be used to enhance the lives of people with disabilities.

Assistive Technology
Assistive technology, on the other hand, specifically focuses on helping individuals with disabilities overcome functional limitations. The primary purpose of assistive technology is to address specific challenges faced by people with disabilities and make it easier for them to participate in daily life, recreation, education and work.

Assistive technologies include: mobility aids, screen readers, braille displays, hearing aids, adaptive keyboards, mouse alternatives and the like.

In summary, enabling technology is designed to benefit a broad user-base and improve overall capabilities, while assistive technology is specifically tailored to address the needs of individuals with disabilities and help them overcome barriers to participation.

Here at CreateAbility, we build enabling technology. We are so pleased to see many of our states here in the U.S. adopting the correct terms and developing waivers/funding terms that address an individual’s need for each type of technology.

Should you need enabling technology that address task prompting, career exploration and discovery, person-centered planning, behavioral health and health & wellbeing solutions, please use the chat function below to speak to a CreateAbility representative!

The post What is the Difference Between Assistive and Enabling Technology? appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

How to Ensure Positive Outcomes for Grant Reporting

cciadmincca1 — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:04:28 +0000

For many providers, grant funding marks the beginning of large-scale enabling tech pilots. These pilots typically include reporting requirements that document the progress, successes and perhaps, setbacks in the onboarding, adoption and monitoring phases.

So, how providers ensure that they can provide positive results back to the grant providers?

Here are a few tips to follow as you receive your grant funding:

Purchase enabling technology solutions that cover an array of intellectual disabilities.
If enabling and assistive technology providers are telling you that 100% of the people served will adopt the technology…use caution! (We find that a more realistic number of 82% as reflected in our MeMinder pilot study with NIDDELR.)
Purchase enabling technology solutions that are able to monitor the feedback and provide reporting capabilities. You will need this functionality to simplify the grant reporting process.

Choose an enabling technology vendor that offers enabling technology solutions on a cafeteria style basis. This way you are not “stuck” with a huge (and expensive) technology platform that will overwhelm some of your staff members as well as the people you serve. In addition, cafeteria style technology enables you to remain true to an individual’s person-centered care plan.

Choose a technology provider that can partner with you to provide “back up plans” for those who do not “take” to the technology. For example, when our clients purchase MeMinder task-prompting, we expect that there will be a few folks who may not take to it. CreateAbility then provides our simpler, QR-code-driven task-prompting technology for those individuals.

When all levels of intellectual disabilities and personalities are covered – the odds for positive outcomes in your reporting increase dramatically!

Choose an enabling technology partner who provides evidence-based technology solutions. That’s important as it equates to third-party verification of outcomes. In most cases it also means that the development of the technology is partially covered by grants; decreasing some of the costs for providers.

CreateAbility has 20+ years of working with grant providers in the area of enabling and assistive technology. Should you have any questions on how to get the most out of your grant funding, don’t hesitate to reach out to us here!

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