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If a number is reported in D you must provide a description of the reason the individuals are excluded from the performance measure:
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Jennifer requires the use of a wheelchair for the majority of her personal mobility. She was unable to access her home. Had difficulty accessing her bathroom due to narrow door. Inside the bathroom she was unable to access her bathtub and had difficulty accessing the commode. Additionally identified were barriers to preparing meals and accessing the kitchen area. Once her goals were established and the barriers were identified AT solutions were explored to remove the barriers. A ramp was installed to access the home. The bathroom door was widened as well as a bathtub lift chair and a raised toilet. To access the kitchen features the consumer was able to try a hydraulic lift stool and determine if it would work. The lift stool worked and was provided permanently. She can now reach her counter tops and as a bonus she can reach her upper cabinets as well. This story is a good example of a consumer reaching out because of one barrier in their daily life but finding that many areas could be improved, and we often don’t have to settle with “getting by”. Again, highlighting that when we engage with people and encourage exploration in all areas of daily living that we find there is quite often much room to improve independence. Leading to greater self esteem and greater goals ahead.
The consumer is in her 50s who lives with her spouse, who is also her caregiver. Experiencing deteriorating health the past 10 years resulted in difficulty with personal mobility and self-care. The goals established were for Self-Care, Home Access, and Transportation. She said she was beginning to feel "like a burden" and worried that her spouse was taking on too much on top of his health issues. She expressed concern about needing to go to a care facility in the future if she was not able to take a more active role in her own care. Especially getting her into the home and into the shower. Solutions were explored to maximize her personal independence. Resulting in the installation of a porch lift to access the home, a roll-in shower, widened doorway as well as vehicle modifications & training. She is now able to enter and exit her shower independently and she is able to complete her self-care without assistance from her spouse. To address her transportation goal their vehicle was fitted with handheld controls as well as receiving driver training, she already had a lift to transport her power wheelchair. She is now able to go out into the community with their vehicle. In her own words, "Thank you doesn't seem enough for all you guys at Care Chest did to help me! I was ready to give up and go to a nursing home, so I wasn't a burden on my husband. You all changed that for me. Thank you so much for putting some ability back into my disability! I will NEVER forget how much all of your assistance did for me. I will try to "pay that forward" in my life."
The Assistive Technology for Independent Living (AT/IL) program uses state funding to make direct AT purchases. Assisting consumers with their Independent Living goals, identify barriers, provide potential AT solutions, and all options that the consumer has available to obtain the AT solution. The program’s focus is to keep individuals in their community. The resources can be used to provide many forms of AT including home access modifications, vehicle mods, and AT that is necessary daily living. The program prioritizes if the services is related to a Transition from institutional living, as well as Preventative. Program funding provided 56 AT solutions that had Prevention implications and 31 AT solutions were provided for Transition of the consumer from a care facility and back into the community. There were 43 AT solutions from other resources not included in the data. Program survey data for life impacts and satisfaction are available as well.
If a number is reported in E you must provide a description of the reason the individuals are excluded from the performance measure:
A family of four was in a motor vehicle accident where they were hit by a drunk driver. Three of the four family members (two children and their father) suffered serious injuries and were in the ICU and rehabilitation center following the accident. CARE Chest assisted all three of the family members with durable medical equipment needed. Without these services the family would have needed to rent or purchase the equipment at a significant burden to the family. Another impactful intervention occurred when the sister of a young woman came to CARE Chest looking for a bathing solution for her sister. Her sister had been shot and when returning home required family to provide care. She was unstable and had blood pressure issues. A reclining shower chair was available and provided, enabling her to bathe in a reclined position.
NATC community partner CARE Chest of Sierra Nevada has maintained this significant Reutilization of AT in Nevada for over 30 years. The program continues to grow and make impacts be collaborating with other organizations that deliver food and resources to rural communities. The program continues to make huge impacts to those with both limited and no resources available to them. The availability of appropriate used AT prevents a larger waitlist to the statewide Assistive Technology for Independent Living (AT/IL) program. All consumers accessing the AT/IL program are encouraged to donate AT that is no longer needed. Adding more value, the program makes sanitized equipment available for demonstrations and short term decision making loans. This is a huge benefit for people to make informed decisions and advocate for the AT that best meets their need. Challenges faced were supply chain delays for equipment and supplies. Although challenging we were never without the DME needed.
Graeme was referred to the program from Legal Services and in need of assistance to transition from a care facility and into the community. His goal was to live in a suitable, community based setting. He received information on his AT choices, and his most important request was to have a way to contact his attorney and he supported decision makers while trying to transition to community living. He was loaned a smart phone. While in the hospital it was his lifeline to contact people. While in the facility the phone was lost or stolen in one of the many moves within the institution. He was then loaned a tablet to enable him to work towards his community placement and conduct banking, and other business, and to stay in touch with his supported decision makers. All challenges during Covid and being institutionalized. During the time of his transition the smart phone and tablet were his lifeline to the outside world. Without it Graeme would not have been able to make decisions. Unfortunately Graeme passed away before transitioning into the community.
The impact of Covid in Nevada remains significant with changing protocols and being able to directly engage with consumers. Hands on instruction is important to enable the consumer to explore the features and experience full benefit in many cases. The most significant impact has rebuilding an AT Resource Center in our most populated area in the state during Covid. We are not where we want to be yet. But we are extremely optimistic as the new program takes root. Funds that were not used due to delayed hiring and locations were used to support significant inventory updates and AT purchases. Over the year the increases in Information and Assistance contacts are extremely positive. People we are engaging in the community are responding. We know if we are engaging with the community that we can look forward to getting our AT in their hands and enable them to make some informed decisions in the year to come.
David has been working with the NATRC on multiple areas of service. Through that process he was demonstrated several ways to magnify print material. He decided that he would like try the CCTV instead of the iPad and the related applications. He was loaned the CCTV. When we asked if he was satisfied he replied with the following comments, “Little things mean a lot. That's the song I sang as a teenager, back in the 1950s. Well, now those words have a new much greater meaning to me. I am 82 years old, Legally Blind and suffer from Severe Parkinson’s Disease. Now, Thanks to the AT Resource Center, I realized that it is still the Little Things, that Truly mean a lot. The simple joy of reading the Sports Page in a local newspaper, the wonderful feeling you get when seeing old photographs of your life's history. Family, Friends, and great moments. It has given me Dignity, Self Respect, and most of all INDEPENDENCE!”.
The impact of Covid in Nevada remains significant with changing protocols and being able to directly engage with consumers. The most significant impact has rebuilding an AT Resource Center in our most populated area in the state during Covid. We are not where we want to be yet. But we are extremely optimistic as the new program takes root. Funds that were not used due to delayed hiring and locations were used to support significant inventory updates and AT purchases. Over the year the increases in Information and Assistance contacts are extremely positive. People we are engaging in the community are responding. We know if we are engaging with the community that we can look forward to getting our AT in their hands and enable them to make some informed decisions in the year to come.
Describe innovative one high-impact assistance training activity conducted during the reporting period:
Provided high impact training to 60 employees of the State of Nevada Workers Compensation Division regarding effective communication technology. Training was mandated by a Department of Labor Civil Rights Center settlement agreement mandating training and policy changes. Purpose of the training was to educate employees on the methods and means to provided auxiliary aids and services including any assistive technology needed to insure effective communication with deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired customers. This included telecommunication equipment usage, video relay services, video remote interpreting and other means of information and communication technology currently used. Although this was a mandated agreement employees were receptive to the needs and really did not have a grasp of the vastness of AT that is used, and also how it could ultimately make things easier for them if they implemented its use on a day to day basis.
Briefly describe one training activity related to transition conducted during the reporting period:
Provided transition related training to 7 special education students at an Elementary School regarding literacy applications in the classroom. The teacher and the students were interested in improving composition and accuracy. We trained the students on several interactive applications that allowed the student to have fun learning to type faster as well as the proper use of spell check, word prediction, and word completion. The students not only liked the applications but showed improvement fairly quickly. Some student needed other AT to get the most out of the literacy apps such as magnification, or adjustments in accessibility settings on the tablets.
Briefly describe one training activity related to Information and Communication Technology accessibility:
Assisted the NV-SILC and their 3rd party website consultant in understanding how problematic Website overlays can be. We had vision impaired users there to demonstrate the barriers and provided input and training on revising their site to meet W3C standards. The screen reader users demonstrated how they moved through a site and what they heard and how they navigated the site. The barriers were very clear to everyone using that method. The third party web developer company made changes to the SILC's site in a reasonable timeframe and we continue to provide direction on meeting the standards on web accessibility.
Providing in person training remained a challenge throughout the pandemic, as protocols fluctuated from time to time and were sometimes different between agencies both in the public and private sectors. This impacted our efforts and challenged the project to provide training on line, both individually, and in smaller groups. A great deal of time was spent training people on the features of online platforms as well as how the accessibility features worked within those platforms. The project continues to search for the best methods to engage people with effective training as we hopefully move away from in person restrictions.
Describe Innovative one high-impact assistance activity that is not related to transition:
The NV-DPAC is a group of about a dozen individuals with a variety of disabilities. It is a Peer to-Peer based group that discuss’ barriers to assistive technology and its effective use. The group decides on the topics and themes for discussion and debate and the resource center team facilitates and offers guidance as needed. The group then decides based on information shared, what their options are for changing policy or systems regarding the topic areas. In this reporting period the group worked on barriers within several state systems including: Regional Transportation, Vocational Rehabilitation, Voting Accessibility, State Legislation, Independent Living, and Statewide Health and Human Services agencies. The group was an important catalyst and had a significant impact to push policy changes through these State and Local Governments and other entities.
Breifly describe one technical assistance activity related to transition conducted during the reporting period:
Began discussions with the Nevada Special Education Technology Assistance Project since they have hired a new director recently. We shared information about our programs and how to work together. Nevada is a very geographically large state and insuring kids who are transitioning in rural school districts get the services they need. We discussed our policies and areas of service and will continue to work on our referral process in order to maximize our effectiveness in rural Nevada. One TA effort specifically involved our projects and a Rural School District in Southern Nevada. NATRC staff had multiple Zoom meetings and phone conversations on what the best way was to deliver services and educate Rural Districts on how to best use both programs and their resources. We refined the referral process and were able to immediately schedule other services such as training, device demonstrations and device loans based on our technical assistance efforts.
One major challenge in providing technical assistance was that some of our major agencies were not up to speed on remote work or online platforms. One such organization was our Vocational Rehabilitation agencies. They were unprepared to move to these methods especially in the early months of the pandemic. It was difficult to reach counselors and supervisors to even discuss arranging a way to continue our conversations and on-going technical assistance. We did work out a few work arounds for this challenge and we continue to be flexible and responsive as we move forward.
Describe in detail at least one and no more than two innovative or high-impact public awareness activities conducted during this reporting period. Highlight the content/focus of the awareness information shared, the mechanism used to disseminate or communicate the awareness information, the numbers and/or types of individuals reached, and positive outcomes resulting from the activity. If quantitive numbers are available regarding the reach of the activity, please provide those: however, quantitive data is not required.
1. During the late Spring and Summer of 2021 (May 2021- August 2021), CARE Chest launched an aggressive social media campaign highlighting our AT programming. That specific campaign reached more than 300,000 individuals living in and around Reno/Sparks. As a result, donations of gently used AT increased as did monetary support for the organization.
2. A major public awareness activity undertaken this past year was with the Economic Opportunity Board of Nevada. Staff worked with the organization, whose mission is to end poverty, to engage with their consumers to address concerns about connectivity and social isolation during and after the COVID 19 pandemic. Based on several conversations and Zoom meetings we were able to arrange and outreach during one of their meetings. We presented on who we are and what we do, and how the individuals could use assistive technology in their daily lives to reduce isolation and access services during these unprecedented times. Around 40 members received information and were excited to learn more about what our Resource Center could offer. This has already led to numerous activities in other areas of the project such as device demonstrations and loans. We will continue to develop this relationship in the years following.
Reported data for I&A comes from our AT Resource Centers with the Nevada AT Resource Centers. The NATC partners all provide significant information and referral services as long standing agencies in the community. However, the complications of collecting data in those systems would burden staff time and delivery of those services. Importantly we know that those consumer contacts are resulting in people being connected to the AT resources in the community. For example, the AT for Independent Living Program (state financing) had 471 calls during the year. With 52% being the consumers themselves and 32 % with an authorized representative of the consumer. The program is reaching the populations that are intended and exploring the options those consumers have. Through those calls there were 1509 referrals, 80 instances of technical assistance provided, and 159 individual Plans created.
1. As concisely as possible, describe the partnership initiative. What activities/services were provided? Who are the major collaborating organizations and what is their role? Who is served/benefited? What funding was used to implement the initiative?
The NV-DPAC is a group of individuals with a variety of disabilities. It is a Peer to Peer based group that discuss barriers to assistive technology and its effective use. The group decides on the topics and themes for discussion and debate and the resource center team provides technical assistance.
2. As concisely as possible, describe the measurable results of the initiative and any lessons learned. How did access to AT change as a result of the coordination/collaboration/partnership? How did awareness of AT change as a result of the partnership? How did the reach of the state AT program change as a result of the partnership? What made the partnership successful? What would you change or wish you had done differently? Provided funding/resources are available, will the initiative continue or is this a one-time event? What advice would you give for replication of the initiative? Please include URL for initiative if available.
In this reporting period the group changed procedures for websites at 3 different agencies, assisted making compliant forms accessible at an employment agency, and has been a catalyst for changing the way agencies host accessible meetings online.
3. What focus areas(s) were addressed by the initiative?
Information and Communication Technology / Remote Connectivity;
4. What AT Act authorized activity(s) were addressed?
Information & Assistance; Technical Assistance;
Initiated conversations about care facility transition with Nevada's Money Follows the Person (MFP), Facility Outreach and Community Integration Services (FOCIS), Centers for Independent Living and the Nevada Statewide Independent Living Council. Resulting in ongoing Community Transition Workgroup that meets every other month to discuss resources, referrals, and barriers.
As a result opportunities to provide training and technical assistance have been established. In 2022 a presentation of all NATC services will take place with the next step being the establishment of training and technical assistance. Trainings will be established and provided to support successful transitions with emphasis on the importance of Assistive Technology needed by the consumer. Value was found by having ongoing conversations about issues that were occurring in the state. This has enabled the NATC to re-establish a relationship with MFP and FOCIS that had withered with the changing of personnel and structure within the state.
Community Participation and Integration;
Device Loan; Demonstration; Reuse; State Financing; Training; Information & Assistance; Public Awareness; Technical Assistance;
1. In one or two sentences, describe the outcome. Be as specific as possible about exactly what changed during this reporting period as a result of the AT program's initiative.
The project coordinated a public awareness activity with the Nevada Special Education Technology Assistance Project. Their mission is to enhance the capacity of school districts to provide assistive technology devices and services. They recently named a new director and we need to touch base to enhance our collaboration. After the outreach we received a call from a rural school district and began the engagement process to assist with the school and several of their students who needed a variety of services.
2. In one or two sentences, describe the written policies, practices, and procedures that have been developed and implemented as a result of the AT program's initiative. Include information about how to obtain the full documents, such as a Web site address or e-mail address of a contact person, but do not include the full documents here. (If there are no written polices, practices and procedures, explain why.)
This resulted in a practice change almost immediately. Resulting in meeting within a school and working with students directly. Also the AT Resource Center has been asked to present at their annual conference later in 2022.
3. What was the primary area of impact for this state improvement outcome?
Education
Center for Assistive Technology Act Data Assistance . Saved: Mon Jan 10 2022 13:32:50 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)