1. Product effectiveness.
   When something is evidence-based, that means the need has been established through rigorous research and the end-product has been tested multiple times to ensure it achieves positive outcomes toward the challenge it set out to solve.
   
   
2. Credibility.
   Most of CreateAbility’s apps have been subsidized with grants funded by large-scale government entities. These entities require extensive reporting and testing to fund development of projects – which equates to third-party validation for the end-users. 
   
   
3. Informed-decision making.
   Evidence-based enabling technologies solve a challenge and in the testing process, demonstrate the potential benefits, limitations and risks associated with a technology. This allows providers the ability to make more informed decisions about the products they are purchasing.
   
   
4. Lower costs.
   With evidence-based technology solutions, the coding and development of a solution is covered in part by the government entities that backed them. The end-product generally reflects prices that are more discounted as development and coding costs were not as steep for the creator.
   
   
5. Commitment to product evolution.
   When an enabling technology solution has the desired outcomes, government entities often provide continued grants for continual development. This translates to an evolution of the original product; providing upgrades and added features to benefit both providers and the individuals they serve. 

Learn more about our evidence-based research that goes into CreateAbility’s enabling technology for seniors, people with intellectual disabilities and traumatic brain injuries here.

Also, take a look at a few of our case studies by clicking here.

The post Why It’s Important to Choose Evidence-Based Enabling Technology appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Here are a few ways that data can be used to enhance person-centered planning:

1. Data provides a holistic view of the individual served.  
   Collecting and analyzing data about the person’s interests, goals, abilities, and challenges can help create a more complete view of who they are and what motivates/demotivates them. This information can then be used to develop plans that better encompass the person’s unique needs.
   
   For the care provider/job coach, the data they receive can help them determine high vs. low needs individuals and ultimately, help them allocate their resources more effectively.
   
   
2. Using data to track progress and setbacks
   Data can be used to monitor progress towards achieving goals and objectives. This can help identify what elements of a person-centered plan are working, where they may be able to fade from human support.
   
   Additionally, data can also help you determine what areas of their care need adjusted and/or call for additional support.
   
   
3. Identification of trends
   Analyzing data across multiple individuals over time can reveal patterns and trends that can be used to continue customization of an individual’s person-centered plan. In this process, data reveals critical information that allows care providers and job coaches to step in with additional communications, tools or support to ward off crises before they happen.
   
   Data (as a way to identify trends) is the main ingredient in taking your provider agency from reactive management to proactive management of the people you serve. 
   
   
4. Informed decision-making = more positive outcomes
   Similarly, data provides a higher level of visibility into the lives of the individuals served.
   As care providers and job coaches leverage data to understand the people they serve better, monitor their individuals more effectively and identify trends in their behaviors – person-centered plans become more honed-in. As person-centered plans become more honed-in – outcomes improve. (Simple as that!)

CreateAbility has been helping organizations who work with individuals with intellectual disabilities and traumatic brain injuries leverage the power of data to not only survive – but THRIVE. (Yes, even in times like these!)

Click here to schedule a live demo of our enabling technology solutions.

The post How Data Improves Person-centered Plans appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Brain injuries are compartmentalized into two diagnoses:  traumatic and non-traumatic.

Non-traumatic brain injuries might be from a stroke, while traumatic brain injuries are from a blow to the head, such as from falls, assaults, motor vehicle accidents, sports/recreation injuries, abusive head trauma, gunshot wounds, workplace injuries, child abuse, domestic violence, and military blast incidents.

Some interesting data on TBIs:

In 2018, there were approximately 223,050 TBI-related hospitalizations.

There were 60,611 TBI-related deaths in 2019.

3.2-5.3 million people in the U.S. live with a traumatic brain injury disability.

The highest number of TBI-related hospitalizations were from people 75 and older, which represents 32% of total hospitalizations.

Males were nearly two times more likely to be hospitalized and three times more likely to die from a TBI than females.

Falls are the #1 root cause of traumatic brain injuries at 35%.

3.2-5.3 million people in the U.S. live with a traumatic brain injury disability.

People with a TBI are 11 times more likely to die from Opioid misuse.

While no two brain injuries are alike and vary in severity, intensity, and length – outcomes for individuals suffering from brain injuries share some commonalities. Cognitive impairments are typically experienced by TBI patients and include:

• memory and recall challenges
• trouble focusing and paying attention
• learning disabilities
• coordination challenges
• managing fatigue

These impairments are not only difficult/frustrating to deal with; they can make the process of returning to normal life activities frustrating for TBI patients and can ultimately take a toll on their energy and mental well-being.

Enabling technology can be a great way to overcome the challenges these impairments cause and speed up the recovery process by proving:

Task prompting/reminders
Task instruction in different formats dependent on severity of TBI
Health & wellbeing check ins to monitor critical factors in rehabilitation process (between visits)
Pre-employment screenings for return-to-work readiness, job interests and skills

CreateAbility has several technology solutions that assist in the rehabilitation of TBI patients. You can learn more about each by following this link:  https://www.createabilityinc.com/supporting-people-with-brain-injuries/

Questions about enabling technology and how they can help you serve your TBI clients more effectively and optimize their person-centered care plan for better outcomes?  Call us at 317.728.6670.

The post CreateAbility Celebrates National Brain Injury Awareness Month 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.

In this report, the areas of concentration and increased and/or continued spending for the Department of Education included increased and/or continued funding for programs creating new elementary and secondary education for Disadvantaged Block Grant, increased support for career and technical education (CTE), provides education freedom to families/students to choose their institutions, protect students and taxpayers from the student loan burden, increased spending for historically black colleges and universities, expanding pell grant opportunities, and more.

The article of interest for those of us working with or supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities was the following:

“Invests Significant Resources for Students with Disabilities.  The Administration believes that all children, including children with disabilities, should have access to a high-quality education. The Budget invests nearly $13 billion in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B Grants to States, an increase of $100 million compared to the 2020 enacted level. This increase would provide more resources for States to provide special education and related services for over seven million students with disabilities.”

The Budget has committed to the continued funding of grants provided by IDEA at the 2020 level of $13 billion. This funding provides the following three grants to serve children with disabilities:

• Part B Formula Grants: Free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment for children with disabilities. (Grants to States and Preschool Grants)
• Part C Formula grants: Grants for Infants and Family program.

The detailed plan of how the additional $100 million is yet to be specified.

As an assistive technology company that serves people with intellectual disabilities, we are able to witness first-hand, the efficacy of its utilization to help those with intellectual disabilities flourish beyond their current capabilities. In turn, technology saves both time and money for our country’s teachers, care providers, DSP’s and rehab professionals.

CreateAbility is currently working with two Federal Agencies (via their small business innovative and research programs) to develop new technology that helps people with IDs and those that have survived a traumatic brain injury (TBI). This program is yielding positive results in the areas of creating and maintaining person-centric care plans; which ultimately has a desirable effect on the rehabilitation goals for the client.

We are in great hopes additional funds will open up new grant opportunities for our partners and other companies to further the research and development of assistive technologies as a way to support both current and upcoming government initiatives.

If you are interested in learning about how assistive technology can help the people you serve, please email us at info@createabilityinc.com or call us at 317.646.7142.

The post 2021 U.S. Budget Reflects Increases to the U.S. Department of Education For Students With Intellectual Disabilities appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.

Certainly, there is supporting evidence for this thinking; we see people almost daily who are not taking care of themselves, losing capacity and capability. But we also read about octogenarians completing marathons, or scaling Mount Everest. People late in life, yet sharp as ever, starting new things, leading breathtaking discoveries.

The point is, seeing anyone through any limiting lens is wrong, and robs us all of the ability to see someone’s inner beauty and value, and all of the things they have yet to accomplish.

It’s not an age, it’s a stage.  Some are lifelong learners who grow every day. Some maintain their earthly vessel way better (than I do); they can out box, out-think, out swim, and out run me. (The latter here actually causes me great envy!)

YOUR LIFE. It’s not about the quantity of years, It’s about the quality. And the ultimate goal is to love and be loved.

It’s not a sum, but how much you hum (your own song).

Not an integer, but how much you are a kindler of the flame in others.

Not an amount, but how you make every moment count.

Not about digits, but how much you push your own limits.

Get going – love, live, see the joy in others this season.

Merry Christmas,

Steve

The post A Word on Ageism from CreateAbility, Inc. President, Steven Sutter appeared first on CreateAbility Inc.