WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:04.830 Lesley Cottrell: Alright, and I'm gonna start letting everyone in from the waiting room. Okay. 2 00:00:05.460 --> 00:00:06.380 Charlene Bennett: Sounds good. 3 00:00:06.610 --> 00:00:07.760 Lesley Cottrell: She, Doug? 4 00:00:22.730 --> 00:00:23.390 Lesley Cottrell: Useful? 5 00:00:28.870 --> 00:00:34.659 Lesley Cottrell: Alright! Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our lunch hour 6 00:00:34.710 --> 00:00:55.380 Lesley Cottrell: as we get started. Please let us know particularly if you're calling in from a phone and we do not wanna get zoom bombed. Let us know who you are and your affiliation. We wanna get to know you. With that being said, if you are willing to turn on your camera, let us see you engage in that conversation, please do. But I understand. If you're not 7 00:00:55.380 --> 00:01:17.690 Lesley Cottrell: comfortable, leave that camera off and engage by chat. There's a raise. The hand function to hear from you during this this part, for sure. I'm gonna let everyone in from the waiting room. But as I do that, I let's let's kinda orient ourselves to what we're doing here. So this is session 5. And you can see our 8 00:01:18.050 --> 00:01:32.430 Lesley Cottrell: our echo series really focused. If you've joined us before one or more sessions before really focused on the intellectual and developmental disabilities, population, and particularly the interest in transitional placements 9 00:01:32.470 --> 00:01:43.181 Lesley Cottrell: and all the factors that go into that. And so session 5, as our planning meeting. Put it together. This is ends our larger general 10 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:57.549 Lesley Cottrell: discussions. And then from this point we're going to have session 6 on where we really get to the nitty gritty. We're starting to do that now with session 5, as you can see, with the topic being delivering effective interventions in the real world. 11 00:01:57.550 --> 00:02:21.086 Lesley Cottrell: This group in particular has discussed a lot about you, get trained, you have ideas. Then you go home with limited resources. And then what do you do so. So many of our objectives are from a national model. Our speakers I'm happy to introduce are from Illinois. They've been there done that, and we hope to share from their experience. And so 12 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:28.090 Lesley Cottrell: let me introduce them. Kim Seanz, is the director of the Illinois Crisis Prevention Network Support Service team. 13 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:46.270 Lesley Cottrell: Charlene Bennett is the co-founder, and CEO executive director of the Individual Advocacy group, and Christy Adamson is the regional administrator in East Moline for Ieg. And so we're going to get the smaller setting within Illinois. That's outside of the Chicago area. So I'm very excited about that. 14 00:02:46.744 --> 00:03:04.090 Lesley Cottrell: Again. Remember, just kind of zoom etiquette mute unless you're you're really wanting to say something, but mute your background to a watch. Out noise, chat, closed captioning should be available. And again, if you haven't done that already. Please give us your name and affiliation in the chat. 15 00:03:04.430 --> 00:03:08.539 Lesley Cottrell: So with that I'm going to turn it over to Kim Charlene and Christy. 16 00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:27.020 Charlene Bennett: Hello, everybody. What we wanna do today is is pro present a case study about a person that came to our organization. That has provided some huge challenges to our to Iag 17 00:03:27.700 --> 00:03:38.099 Charlene Bennett: We had no idea. Once he was admitted, all the unique challenges that actually slide that was presented we 18 00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:39.300 Charlene Bennett: spent. 19 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:41.280 Charlene Bennett: I just started scrolling. 20 00:03:41.980 --> 00:03:43.050 Charlene Bennett: It's on. 21 00:03:43.400 --> 00:04:03.739 Charlene Bennett: So part of what we want to do today is give you really in depth, detail about keep on about this individual. Keep going. Sorry we're trying to get the slides going here. So we get a call one day from the State of Illinois that that there is an individual that is living in an institutional setting that 22 00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:12.399 Charlene Bennett: presented the State with a lot of unique challenges. Part of the issue had been a fight between the Advocacy Division 23 00:04:13.540 --> 00:04:15.917 Charlene Bennett: and our State. 24 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:19.850 Charlene Bennett: Dd. Division, and that 25 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:30.359 Charlene Bennett: that the Guardian did not want her son living in a in a organization that was institutional like 26 00:04:31.070 --> 00:04:40.620 Charlene Bennett: we received. And I mean, Ken, we can talk about. You know, there's there was a lot of materials that that can we always look at in terms of referral information. 27 00:04:40.710 --> 00:05:01.714 Charlene Bennett: We were given many, many reports from the State of Illinois we received, I would say, maybe 20 different clinical reports from psychologists to doctors to direct support staff to communication therapists. 28 00:05:03.180 --> 00:05:07.170 Charlene Bennett: and we attended multiple meetings 29 00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:10.680 Charlene Bennett: with the State in terms of transition. 30 00:05:11.350 --> 00:05:19.919 Charlene Bennett: Kim, I don't know if you want to jump in at any time you know about. When you work with the state OP. The materials that are required to be presented. 31 00:05:21.890 --> 00:05:43.509 Kim Shontz: Yeah, most of the most of the materials that are obviously are like the social history. We really focus on the medication. We really try to get a lot of information about the medical person before they transition. One of the unique things about the person that Charlene is going to share is that the information that we received as part of the Fsc. Which much was much different than the information that the provider received. 32 00:05:43.570 --> 00:05:57.980 Kim Shontz: and so, because of our communication we're able to share hey? Did you catch this? And when you know Dr. Bennett said, no, we didn't even see that we knew there's a little bit of a problem. And so, in terms of a lot of the most important information being held back from the provider. 33 00:05:58.770 --> 00:06:09.529 Charlene Bennett: So. So we again made a decision. The poor fella, you know, we got information that seemed to be traditional in terms of our 34 00:06:10.460 --> 00:06:27.550 Charlene Bennett: our experience in supporting persons. Christy, as a new administrator, was all enthusiastic. You may want to jump in at any point. She attended the meeting. She went to the State Institution. She rallied her team together, and then we 35 00:06:27.550 --> 00:06:52.199 Charlene Bennett: we began designing the supports and services. Wanna jump in. Yeah. And this this specific slide share some information just about what we received from his guardian. Who is his mother, about how she was feeling about the location that he was living and some of her concerns she had there, and part of the reason why our team was so enthusiastic about bringing him into community based 36 00:06:52.200 --> 00:07:12.359 Charlene Bennett: services. Obviously, these are some serious concerns, and we were excited to provide a new life for him at Iag. We believe very strongly that people have the right to live in a community that perhaps living in an institutional type of setting or psychiatric hospital is not the best place. 37 00:07:12.370 --> 00:07:34.540 Charlene Bennett: and we went into providing support to this young person with more than bigger and ex excitement than you could ever imagine. We interviewed previous placements, you know, Kim and I spoke because I don't think she was given all the information, and from that we began to customize the plan for him. 38 00:07:35.630 --> 00:07:50.789 Charlene Bennett: So this is just a little history about Tj. A young man who lived at home for quite a while, but was also put into a special school at a young age, and then resided with his mom. After that. 39 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:53.100 Charlene Bennett: get most. 40 00:07:56.540 --> 00:08:17.239 Charlene Bennett: We received information about his diagnoses, autism seizures, bipolar anxiety. And what have you? And so we looked at these diagnoses. We believe that we could keep going, please. We've we believe that we could handle the situation. So we began designing the home 41 00:08:18.200 --> 00:08:26.920 Charlene Bennett: we were planning on this gentleman living with 2 other people. So it was going to be a 3 person environment in the community. 42 00:08:26.950 --> 00:08:49.839 Charlene Bennett: This is a small town. Everyone. This is not Big city. This is us western Illinois, where resources have not always been abundant. Not as many professional staff to call upon. And yet. We made the decision with Christy myself, the team with Kim's team that we were going to go full speed ahead. 43 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:55.689 Kim Shontz: Charlene and Christy your your slides are not showing up, so I'm not sure if maybe you need to hit share again. 44 00:08:56.470 --> 00:08:57.340 Charlene Bennett: Ow. 45 00:08:57.950 --> 00:09:01.000 Charlene Bennett: it says we are still screen sharing. 46 00:09:01.910 --> 00:09:02.630 Lesley Cottrell: Oh, who's cool? 47 00:09:02.930 --> 00:09:04.730 Lesley Cottrell: I can see it on my end. 48 00:09:05.580 --> 00:09:06.730 Teresa Bhaile: Yeah, me, too. 49 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:08.916 Charlene Bennett: Okay, can you see that. 50 00:09:09.180 --> 00:09:09.850 Kim Shontz: Perfect. 51 00:09:10.170 --> 00:09:10.640 Charlene Bennett: So, yeah. 52 00:09:10.640 --> 00:09:12.249 Kim Shontz: Time is different. I can't, but that's fine. 53 00:09:12.450 --> 00:09:13.340 Charlene Bennett: Spooky. 54 00:09:13.580 --> 00:09:17.571 Charlene Bennett: So we we found a home that. 55 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:42.929 Charlene Bennett: was based on a lot of what we believed we got from all the referral information that he wanted a backyard, that he was an active gentleman, that he was someone that just would love a sensory room. You want to add to that, Christy? Yeah. So after meeting Alan at the facility, or after meeting Tj at the facility that he was living at 56 00:09:43.496 --> 00:10:11.149 Charlene Bennett: we designed the entire home customized to what we had learned about him at that point. Including what you can see here, which is a customized sensory room for him, with both different lights, swings pads that he could flop down on lots of texturized walls, lots of options to keep him engaged, which was something he was lacking at his current facility 57 00:10:11.150 --> 00:10:29.160 Charlene Bennett: and part of what? I'm very excited to say. This was an effort by all staff in the or in the region, including to direct support personnel. In fact, our maintenance team. Yeah, I mean this, the the this particular customized environment 58 00:10:29.160 --> 00:10:54.710 Charlene Bennett: was designed with the Dsp. Staff in our maintenance person, Christy and some other professional staff. So it was a labor of love to get ready for this gentleman to join to join us. We worked extensively during that time to do what we thought was customized training based upon reports that we received 59 00:10:54.990 --> 00:10:56.015 Charlene Bennett: from 60 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:06.090 Charlene Bennett: the previous organization. I mean, Kim, jump in at any time, you know, in terms of what you see with with the trainings that we did. 61 00:11:07.630 --> 00:11:25.190 Charlene Bennett: you know we did very customized behavioral training with reinforces redirection. We looked at his individual support plan in detail. The nurses got involved, and we spend an enormous amount of time of training. Yeah, we spent a lot of time curating 62 00:11:25.190 --> 00:11:40.830 Charlene Bennett: his team. So who was going to be with him in the home every day, who was best suited to his needs. That we had on our team at the time. Which was an important part to getting prepared for his arrival. 63 00:11:41.410 --> 00:12:01.519 Charlene Bennett: based on the information that we received from persons that were providing supports to him in the institutional environment. We came up with a schedule that we thought would be exciting for this, this man, and we had staff all ready to go. We bought the materials, etc. 64 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:09.709 Charlene Bennett: So now we want to talk about reality. You know, we talk about transition 65 00:12:09.870 --> 00:12:11.960 Charlene Bennett: reports we all get. 66 00:12:12.250 --> 00:12:17.799 Charlene Bennett: you know, the meetings. We went through the questions that were asked. 67 00:12:17.880 --> 00:12:20.310 Charlene Bennett: the visits that we made 68 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:26.970 Charlene Bennett: all kinds of enthusiasm and customizing the environment, the staff training. 69 00:12:27.150 --> 00:12:30.180 Charlene Bennett: except the scheduling, etc. 70 00:12:30.540 --> 00:12:33.209 Charlene Bennett: And then this gentleman arrives. 71 00:12:34.270 --> 00:12:43.729 Charlene Bennett: I guess the best way of describing it. It was, oh, my goodness! The first thing that happened was he showed up with the first, the first 72 00:12:43.890 --> 00:12:48.109 Charlene Bennett: date that we had. We got a call, saying they couldn't get them in the vehicle 73 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:59.350 Charlene Bennett: to transport him. And again we were enthusiastic, perhaps a bit naive, going. Well, you know, the poor fella transition is really hard for people. That's just how it is. 74 00:12:59.820 --> 00:13:03.929 Charlene Bennett: So another intake date was established. 75 00:13:05.390 --> 00:13:06.700 Charlene Bennett: He shows up 76 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:22.779 Charlene Bennett: with what we thought were going to be one or 2 staff, because that's typically normal for transport to a new facility. But he showed up with 5 staff and the other piece that I think we missed 77 00:13:22.920 --> 00:13:25.480 Charlene Bennett: was during the transition phase 78 00:13:26.460 --> 00:13:27.890 Charlene Bennett: we have been. 79 00:13:28.040 --> 00:13:55.850 Charlene Bennett: Sometimes they want people to go, visit back and forth, look at the environment. And we were asked that that was not necessary here. So we just we just thought it was a situation where we did that, that the team that had currently supported him in the institutional setting. Just didn't want to traumatize him, so we didn't really think twice about it. I get a call from Christy. The team was excited. Here comes Ellen, and immediately what happens, Christy? When he showed up? 80 00:13:56.253 --> 00:14:25.359 Charlene Bennett: So when he arrived at the home, he I he did not exit the vehicle willingly. The staff who were with him had to get him out of the vehicle and immediately upon entering the home we had an incident where he lunged at his staff that were with him, and injured them in the process of the transition, which was not what we were expecting for the transition period. 81 00:14:25.460 --> 00:14:40.430 Charlene Bennett: So what ends up happening now, and what we want to take you through is the reality of what actually happened when he came here. Christy, our extremely enthusiastic administrator. The team 82 00:14:40.920 --> 00:14:52.073 Charlene Bennett: started calling me with the worst panic you could ever hear in their voices about. Oh, my goodness! This young man 83 00:14:52.750 --> 00:14:54.010 Charlene Bennett: has picup. 84 00:14:54.690 --> 00:15:01.820 Charlene Bennett: We're like Pica. Nobody ever disclosed to us that, in fact, I specifically asked 85 00:15:02.250 --> 00:15:05.440 Charlene Bennett: the treatment team. Does he have pike up. 86 00:15:05.860 --> 00:15:10.359 Charlene Bennett: Well, he had an incident 7 years ago, and there's no issue here. 87 00:15:10.460 --> 00:15:12.130 Charlene Bennett: and we 88 00:15:13.430 --> 00:15:30.649 Charlene Bennett: saw initially him trying to mouth things, swallow things, take small objects from the environment and eating things which, of course, you could all imagine. You know people can choke on those things. That all occurred 89 00:15:31.250 --> 00:15:43.290 Charlene Bennett: pretty quickly, very quickly, after his intake we realized that this could be transition. But then we found out, as we start observing some of these really significant behaviors. 90 00:15:43.940 --> 00:16:05.041 Charlene Bennett: truth be known that Ig was not given all the accurate information that the office of civil rights was involved in this situation. And this was a long term history of this gentleman being exceptionally aggressive. During the first week or so. 91 00:16:05.610 --> 00:16:06.650 Charlene Bennett: He. 92 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.560 Charlene Bennett: without provocation, would munge at employees. 93 00:16:11.660 --> 00:16:20.399 Charlene Bennett: invite them, bite them in 1 one situation, severing the nerves of one of our employees. Fingertips. 94 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:22.699 Charlene Bennett: We had multiple staff 95 00:16:23.210 --> 00:16:38.419 Charlene Bennett: multiple staff going to the hospital to assure they didn't have head trauma. We had multiple staff getting bitten, and we actually had to get him checked out several times, because what we observed 96 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:40.890 Charlene Bennett: was that he would 97 00:16:41.490 --> 00:16:48.559 Charlene Bennett: lungeet employees unprovoked and try to body, slam them to the ground and bite their necks. 98 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:49.910 Charlene Bennett: Now. 99 00:16:51.230 --> 00:16:53.079 Charlene Bennett: along with the pica. 100 00:16:53.380 --> 00:16:54.690 Charlene Bennett: So now 101 00:16:54.930 --> 00:16:57.350 Charlene Bennett: we have a situation where 102 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:05.550 Charlene Bennett: we believed that the the inaccuracy of the of the information 103 00:17:05.819 --> 00:17:06.880 Charlene Bennett: occurred. 104 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:11.310 Charlene Bennett: We had a situation where 105 00:17:11.609 --> 00:17:15.900 Charlene Bennett: I was like. Can you imagine everyone this the fear of oh, my gosh! 106 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:18.189 Charlene Bennett: You know not just him getting injured. 107 00:17:18.230 --> 00:17:20.060 Charlene Bennett: our staff getting injured. 108 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:24.930 Charlene Bennett: people in sheer panic. What are we going to do? 109 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:28.239 Charlene Bennett: There were unexpected. 110 00:17:28.530 --> 00:17:29.740 Charlene Bennett: unexpected. 111 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:49.990 Charlene Bennett: so this is just some of the things that happened. Christy, do you wanna just bring up just give a little bit more the behavioral issues. Yeah. So I think the first 2 very significant incidents that changed our perspective on how we were going to help him. Moving forward was 112 00:17:49.990 --> 00:18:14.080 Charlene Bennett: the unprovoked episodes of aggression where it was very difficult to understand what precursors there were, and so our staff, keeping him and them safe, was very complicated in the beginning, and secondarily to that his pica was much more severe than we had been let on. So we did immediately institute what we called Pica sweeps. 113 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:41.590 Charlene Bennett: where we would have an external staff member, someone who didn't work in the home every day. Because if you work in the home every day, and you see the same things every day. You sort of become numb to them. But a secondary staff, who didn't work in the home every day would come in every morning and every evening, and walk through the entire home, back to front and remove anything and everything that could be ingested easily. 114 00:18:42.000 --> 00:19:04.580 Charlene Bennett: Once we did that. Several times we discovered that he would get even more creative with identifying things he could swallow. So that Staff Member started cutting tags off of furniture, for example, making sure the blinds with the small plastic piece was removed so that he could not ingest that 115 00:19:04.883 --> 00:19:17.326 Charlene Bennett: and that was one of the ways in which we had to pivot pretty early on to ensuring his safety as well as if you want to talk about the protective gear that we instituted. So what end up happening? 116 00:19:18.230 --> 00:19:29.060 Charlene Bennett: when he actually came here and actually saw many of the behaviors that we were certainly unaware of. We had, as Christie described, just rethink everything 117 00:19:29.130 --> 00:19:32.409 Charlene Bennett: from redesigning the house 118 00:19:32.780 --> 00:19:36.430 Charlene Bennett: in terms of where furniture was going to be kept. 119 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:56.317 Charlene Bennett: We actually had. We also had to redesign who was going to support him in the home because we had many staff so afraid they just did not want to risk their safety any longer. So that was a huge piece of the partnership that we had to 120 00:19:57.670 --> 00:19:59.630 Charlene Bennett: pivot upon. We 121 00:19:59.780 --> 00:20:08.680 Charlene Bennett: had to take a look at the way we managed his aggressiveness, because what we found out after he came to us 122 00:20:08.830 --> 00:20:17.379 Charlene Bennett: through a conversation with the Guardian and others, that he was accustomed to physical takedowns of 5 employees at one time. 123 00:20:17.870 --> 00:20:26.940 Charlene Bennett: We are a hands-off agency. We don't use any physical takedown components to our treatment, and what we also discovered 124 00:20:27.210 --> 00:20:32.089 Charlene Bennett: was, it appeared to us, is that he was replicating the approach that was 125 00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:39.270 Charlene Bennett: that he probably had done to him in terms of lunging and knocking somebody to the ground and 126 00:20:39.300 --> 00:20:40.054 Charlene Bennett: and 127 00:20:41.870 --> 00:20:44.569 Charlene Bennett: trying to maintain him. So 128 00:20:44.760 --> 00:20:58.390 Charlene Bennett: my first thought at the time was, Let's just go ahead and discharge, because this was not something we bargained for. You know we had 7 people hospitalized. We had 129 00:20:58.560 --> 00:21:08.280 Charlene Bennett: staff fingers severed. We had Pike going on. We had a treatment team that said, Hey, this is this is certainly not something we want to do anymore. 130 00:21:08.350 --> 00:21:09.360 Charlene Bennett: Well. 131 00:21:09.390 --> 00:21:12.729 Charlene Bennett: the external pressure was quote unquote, it's not happening. 132 00:21:12.970 --> 00:21:17.270 Charlene Bennett: You must keep him. We will not allow you to discharge. 133 00:21:17.300 --> 00:21:19.320 Charlene Bennett: This became 134 00:21:19.560 --> 00:21:31.439 Charlene Bennett: a major issue for us, because we got caught up in some unknown political upheaval. There are meetings scheduled that we were 135 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:40.410 Charlene Bennett: certainly invited to where over 30 people was involved. Most of them were lawyers, and it was just a very frightening situation for us. 136 00:21:40.660 --> 00:21:49.680 Charlene Bennett: Most importantly what I was concerned about, because he began gagging and putting his fist down his throat and holding onto his teeth. 137 00:21:49.760 --> 00:21:53.219 Charlene Bennett: we were very worried about a medical condition 138 00:21:53.320 --> 00:21:54.390 Charlene Bennett: that 139 00:21:54.790 --> 00:22:04.030 Charlene Bennett: may not have been identified. But we could get 0 help from anybody, because we could not get him into a car to go see a doctor 140 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:24.070 Charlene Bennett: and the hospitals in the in the area where we had to have him visit a few times, because when he would slam his head down, or when he tried to do Pike up, they were very unwilling to do anything but the basics, so we were in a very tough spot. We made a decision 141 00:22:24.070 --> 00:22:35.819 Charlene Bennett: early on, because it was survival for us initially that we are just going to take matters into our own hands and do the best we can do as a treatment team and a group. 142 00:22:35.870 --> 00:22:38.580 Charlene Bennett: And we revamped everything 143 00:22:38.700 --> 00:22:40.800 Charlene Bennett: we brought in 144 00:22:42.580 --> 00:22:53.109 Charlene Bennett: staff from outlying regions that did trauma training because we identified that some of this behavior was trauma based from his experiences. 145 00:22:53.430 --> 00:23:09.519 Charlene Bennett: We had our team working with the male team and going through all the history that we got to identify how some of these behaviors could be reactive from how he was treated. Inside some of these facilities 146 00:23:09.730 --> 00:23:14.240 Charlene Bennett: we regrouped and how we were going to manage his aggressiveness. 147 00:23:15.140 --> 00:23:16.560 Charlene Bennett: and 148 00:23:17.390 --> 00:23:22.069 Charlene Bennett: decided that it was going to be a total hands off approach. 149 00:23:22.210 --> 00:23:31.479 Charlene Bennett: But we were going to really focus on protecting our employee in terms of they were going to begin to wear. 150 00:23:32.780 --> 00:23:44.260 Charlene Bennett: I would call protection protection. So we weren't going to focus on hands on with him. But how can we protect our employees? So we we put 151 00:23:44.420 --> 00:23:57.989 Charlene Bennett: house monitors in the home. We provided Shields, so when he would lunge that he would not be able to attack our employees, and then we use a very sophisticated behavioral technique 152 00:23:58.270 --> 00:24:14.330 Charlene Bennett: to it. Will, we can go into that later, if you'd like. But we removed our staff from having to be the object of the aggressiveness, so he could not reach the attack. It was a very intense approach to have our staff feel safe 153 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:39.027 Charlene Bennett: as well as keeping him safe. We had to use a lot of creativity. We had to think about utilizing techniques that we don't typically have to use at Iag like staff entering the home wearing bite. Proof sleeves, bite proof gloves and, like Dr. Bennett said, utilizing the 154 00:24:39.500 --> 00:24:56.520 Charlene Bennett: padded, blocking shields in order to keep him and our team safe as we continue down this path of what's next for him. And I think one really important thing that we learned from this is 155 00:24:56.980 --> 00:25:26.189 Charlene Bennett: the the importance of getting as many ideas on the table as possible, because it really required a lot of creativity. The protective sleeves were purchased at a hardware store for you know, like not protecting yourself from a chainsaw, right? So we had to really utilize a lot of interesting and unique ideas to get us to a point where 156 00:25:26.807 --> 00:25:29.989 Charlene Bennett: we all felt as though we could continue 157 00:25:30.070 --> 00:25:33.420 Charlene Bennett: providing these services in the community. When 158 00:25:33.510 --> 00:25:36.879 Charlene Bennett: his behavior became so challenging. 159 00:25:37.430 --> 00:25:48.040 Charlene Bennett: it became as much of a task for me to work with Christy to provide her the support because she was with the frontline staff. 160 00:25:48.070 --> 00:25:54.650 Charlene Bennett: and would call with such a sense of panic and fear, and, oh, my God, you know 161 00:25:54.890 --> 00:26:07.199 Charlene Bennett: this! This is not what we expected, and how are we going to manage him and and support him in a way that was safe and not a situation where? 162 00:26:08.180 --> 00:26:09.400 Charlene Bennett: Our staff. 163 00:26:10.360 --> 00:26:24.759 Charlene Bennett: It's going to come to work and worry about huge injury. There were even a few, I think, times where we were in the er with him and we were on the phone with Kim. They were helping as well navigate this for us. 164 00:26:25.580 --> 00:26:46.709 Charlene Bennett: So we're just kind of sharing a slide here. We're talking about all the regrouping, all the retraining. We did all the different systems we put in place with the picas sweeps from redesigning the home. So it was safe. Making sure, we worked with Staff to feel that where they felt they were supported 165 00:26:46.790 --> 00:26:49.650 Charlene Bennett: we were able to deploy 166 00:26:49.770 --> 00:26:52.980 Charlene Bennett: to our region additional 167 00:26:53.190 --> 00:26:59.820 Charlene Bennett: staff from other regions that felt that they could manage the behavior. 168 00:27:00.450 --> 00:27:28.010 Charlene Bennett: I guess the best way of describing it. They weren't as scared. Gave our team a break, you know the team that was there every day, which was important. We had to redo the sensory room because we realized that he was not tolerant of many of these things. We also had to reshift the plan, because we also identified the fact that he was unable to even tolerate someone trying to bathe him. 169 00:27:30.412 --> 00:27:32.279 Charlene Bennett: Brush his teeth. 170 00:27:32.300 --> 00:27:35.830 Charlene Bennett: and part of what became a huge challenge 171 00:27:36.330 --> 00:27:46.470 Charlene Bennett: was getting Staff to understand. What does it mean to be successful? I think sometimes staff have a different perspective 172 00:27:46.510 --> 00:27:52.869 Charlene Bennett: on that. And you know well, what are we doing, you know. And so what we began to 173 00:27:52.930 --> 00:28:02.430 Charlene Bennett: to see through all these new techniques and creative thinking. As we began to see some small changes along the way. 174 00:28:02.740 --> 00:28:07.270 Charlene Bennett: the the one thing that I had to do was protect the team 175 00:28:07.540 --> 00:28:09.080 Charlene Bennett: from being 176 00:28:10.780 --> 00:28:17.300 Charlene Bennett: involved in the political side. And I mean, that's probably the wrong term from all the pressure 177 00:28:17.540 --> 00:28:23.269 Charlene Bennett: that was present. That was part of this. This particular situation 178 00:28:23.610 --> 00:28:29.589 Charlene Bennett: there were supposed to have been 4 different entities coming in to observe how he was doing. 179 00:28:29.850 --> 00:28:39.469 Charlene Bennett: Don't know, don't know why. This was a transitional plan that was used, and I stopped it. I said, we cannot have outsiders coming in at this point and trigger off more behaviors 180 00:28:39.946 --> 00:28:56.589 Charlene Bennett: the State wanted to bring in some medical people, and we knew at the time that if we brought in a physician this man would have attacked them and hurt them, and we we I took a stance like No. We really had to work very hard and and keeping 181 00:28:56.620 --> 00:29:08.399 Charlene Bennett: all that away from the team so they could be successful and not be bird with. With some of those types of external pressures that was exceptionally important. 182 00:29:08.470 --> 00:29:17.269 Charlene Bennett: We also had to work with our team and and helping them understand the successes that we were starting to see with him as time went on, and to rethink 183 00:29:18.750 --> 00:29:20.340 Charlene Bennett: that component. 184 00:29:23.150 --> 00:29:40.909 Charlene Bennett: So these are some of the things that we did in terms of how we were going to regroup what we were going to do in this particular situation, and continuously. And all this sounds odd, everyone, but when you have a team that's scared they feel like they were. 185 00:29:41.610 --> 00:30:05.950 Charlene Bennett: I believe, boozle and boozled. I think they thought that we lied to them. They probably thought that I just did this to them. And you know I snuggled the team. So so much of this was back and forth. If I promise you, Christy, I didn't know either. Yeah, I called Kim, who's just phenomenal, Kim. She didn't. You know it was just. This is the best example of 186 00:30:06.550 --> 00:30:22.410 Charlene Bennett: you know. Everything looked really wonderful. The reports, the meetings, transition plans. Oh, wow! This is exciting. We you know, we? There were really no red flags. We just thought this poor fella 187 00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:48.319 Charlene Bennett: you know. What happened was he was in another residential environment, and I guess that environment got closed. And so we ended up in this environment. And then there was all kinds of complications. When he ended up there. They wanted him out, and they call, we thought, Why not? You know we've supported High End people before. Let's get this done. And what reality was from what actually happened was shocking everyone. And 188 00:30:48.450 --> 00:30:52.839 Charlene Bennett: and you know, this is still happening. This is in real time. 189 00:30:54.000 --> 00:31:15.599 Charlene Bennett: We began seeing small changes with him. Today. What we do is we have. You know, we have some some things we don't have to let. This is some of the tips and tricks and all the techniques we utilized everyone, you know. It's hard to show on the screen here, but you know how we had to. You know all the things that we did 190 00:31:15.630 --> 00:31:24.369 Charlene Bennett: once we realized, oh, boy, reality versus fantasy, I suppose, and 191 00:31:26.020 --> 00:31:27.679 Charlene Bennett: where we are now 192 00:31:28.030 --> 00:31:29.580 Charlene Bennett: is still 193 00:31:29.980 --> 00:31:39.310 Charlene Bennett: an exercise in like today. We just got a call that he tried to hurt some staff with, Yeah, but where we are today 194 00:31:39.500 --> 00:31:44.110 Charlene Bennett: is that the frequency of the lunging attacks 195 00:31:44.250 --> 00:31:59.048 Charlene Bennett: have been reduced significantly. We don't use any physical restraint on him. What what I'm exceptionally proud of because the mother, what I didn't wanna get the mother is unique. That's what I'm going to say. 196 00:31:59.560 --> 00:32:10.309 Charlene Bennett: Sometimes our guardians can be unique. You all know what I'm trying to say here. And that was another challenge, her uniqueness 197 00:32:10.370 --> 00:32:22.599 Charlene Bennett: and and how to sub. You know how to work with her, and she did suggest to me early on that you just need to bring in 5 people and restrain and restrain them. I said, Oh, no, we're not. 198 00:32:22.800 --> 00:32:35.210 Charlene Bennett: The mother then started being kind of unique by telling, you know, saying not so nice things, and we just send. Then she started telling us at the time that this is how it's always been done 199 00:32:35.240 --> 00:32:40.440 Charlene Bennett: that didn't we know all these things? And then we found out that 200 00:32:41.100 --> 00:32:46.519 Charlene Bennett: through once he got here, that of course, all these things happened. Didn't we know? 201 00:32:47.156 --> 00:32:54.240 Charlene Bennett: So again, it was multiple areas that we had to work on together to try to keep 202 00:32:54.420 --> 00:32:57.070 Charlene Bennett: effective. In supporting this gentleman. 203 00:32:57.120 --> 00:33:00.320 Charlene Bennett: There is a reduced frequency of the lunging. 204 00:33:00.530 --> 00:33:08.330 Charlene Bennett: although I will say he still has those experiences. But our staff are not reacting to him the way they used to. 205 00:33:08.460 --> 00:33:10.400 Charlene Bennett: We have practiced 206 00:33:10.800 --> 00:33:17.610 Charlene Bennett: always like ran drills. So so one of the techniques that we use. And we did this 207 00:33:18.330 --> 00:33:33.239 Charlene Bennett: from our experience and not we didn't rely at that time with any behavioral analyst or or board certified behavior person is, we knew that the technique we were going to use was going to be surprising to people. How what do you mean? You're not going to do a physical 208 00:33:33.240 --> 00:33:55.399 Charlene Bennett: hold, a restraint when somebody's aggressive, and so we knew was gonna take time to unlearn some of that behavior. But we practice the techniques when he was not there. We practice the techniques and how to remove oneself to keep them safe as part of our training of staff. It was a very unique presentation and working with our employees. 209 00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:58.630 Charlene Bennett: And it worked. We we 210 00:33:58.670 --> 00:34:06.960 Charlene Bennett: practice to practice in terms of how to keep yourself safe, how to properly utilize protective techniques. 211 00:34:07.774 --> 00:34:09.739 Charlene Bennett: His staffing ratio. 212 00:34:11.150 --> 00:34:23.410 Charlene Bennett: we did a lot of review about who he responded to and didn't do. So today. What we see is a reduction of the frequency not totally gone, because when he 213 00:34:23.690 --> 00:34:26.309 Charlene Bennett: has those behaviors they're very 214 00:34:26.679 --> 00:34:27.790 Charlene Bennett: intense. 215 00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:40.250 Charlene Bennett: and if our staff let their guard down, it could lead to some very negative outcomes. So there was definitely an increased time between the aggressive episodes. 216 00:34:40.350 --> 00:34:41.760 Charlene Bennett: The pike off 217 00:34:41.929 --> 00:34:44.636 Charlene Bennett: is still prevalent. 218 00:34:46.590 --> 00:34:49.979 Charlene Bennett: one of the things that we had to do, because, you know. 219 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.839 Charlene Bennett: he he was. We were told that he loves crunchy 220 00:34:55.210 --> 00:34:56.360 Charlene Bennett: veggies. 221 00:34:56.469 --> 00:35:00.790 Charlene Bennett: but then we found buried in this history that he's got gird. 222 00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:11.809 Charlene Bennett: So we made the connection between the kind of veggies we gave him, with perhaps triggering off acid reflux. So we had to change that but 223 00:35:11.940 --> 00:35:17.170 Charlene Bennett: his gagging in his mouth has been much reduced with the change in the diet. 224 00:35:18.383 --> 00:35:20.609 Charlene Bennett: The sensory 225 00:35:21.350 --> 00:35:24.799 Charlene Bennett: capability in terms of him tolerating 226 00:35:26.350 --> 00:35:31.419 Charlene Bennett: larger periods of timers. Teeth can be brushed as slowly increasing. 227 00:35:32.266 --> 00:35:37.029 Charlene Bennett: We still are unable to get them out because of the aggressiveness. 228 00:35:37.120 --> 00:36:07.029 Charlene Bennett: but we are very happy to say that he is starting to explore his backyard. Our current state with him. Is that like? Dr. Bennett said. We've had a reduction in the period of time. The length of time between incidents has grown we also were able to tightrade down our third shift staff from 2 to one. So that's been success in progress. 229 00:36:07.030 --> 00:36:30.689 Charlene Bennett: And just recently, over the last week or 2, he has definitely started to show an interest in exploring more of the home and into his beautiful backyard that we designed for him. So that will introduce a new set of things that we need to contemplate and address and make sure that he stays safe with the staff. But 230 00:36:30.720 --> 00:36:48.599 Charlene Bennett: I think one of the most important things, if you take away anything from today is understanding what worked for me was that success looks different for each individual, and while these may seem like extremely minor steps for a lot of the people, we have in support 231 00:36:48.770 --> 00:36:51.869 Charlene Bennett: for someone like him. These are huge steps. 232 00:36:52.348 --> 00:37:06.290 Charlene Bennett: and and Dr. Bennett helping me understand that, and then me being able to coach. Our team through. Some of this has honestly been what's allowed us to be this successful thus far. 233 00:37:06.540 --> 00:37:18.260 Charlene Bennett: tiny, tiny steps that are improving very slowly over time. Is what we're focused on for the future. And what comment I want to make is that 234 00:37:19.310 --> 00:37:28.999 Charlene Bennett: I think it's exceptionally important that when when you have persons in support that are very challenging, it's everyone's effort. I know sometimes that 235 00:37:29.020 --> 00:37:32.810 Charlene Bennett: one of the things I think is exceptionally important is that when you have 236 00:37:33.260 --> 00:37:35.140 Charlene Bennett: teams and staff 237 00:37:35.300 --> 00:37:36.590 Charlene Bennett: afraid 238 00:37:36.740 --> 00:37:45.899 Charlene Bennett: or needing help, you can't just ignore it, you know it's just it's it's all in. And what what really worked was Christy's 239 00:37:46.680 --> 00:37:47.870 Charlene Bennett: courage 240 00:37:47.980 --> 00:37:50.799 Charlene Bennett: and not trying to hide her fear. 241 00:37:50.860 --> 00:37:54.170 Charlene Bennett: and not because, you know, we do support people with 242 00:37:54.240 --> 00:38:03.509 Charlene Bennett: very challenging, co-occurring behaviors, and sometimes people don't want people to know they can't manage it. But it was. It was that partnership 243 00:38:03.540 --> 00:38:09.040 Charlene Bennett: with the team of Staff Gi. And and all the efforts together. 244 00:38:09.400 --> 00:38:13.980 Charlene Bennett: and I'll tell you. It was not easy, because we certainly had no idea 245 00:38:14.350 --> 00:38:24.890 Charlene Bennett: that this person was was going to be here and come here with all these unique challenges. And another piece to this that has presented additional difficulties 246 00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:38.490 Charlene Bennett: is, we had to put a hold on other people moving into this home, and then I had to. There was a lot of challenges about irate guardians, people saying, Why can't they move in yet? So this whole 247 00:38:38.520 --> 00:38:53.539 Charlene Bennett: situation, we felt, would be important to share with what happens when you think you got all the information to? Then what happens when the reality kicks in? And then what do you do to read or pivot to try to get it right 248 00:38:55.630 --> 00:38:57.560 Charlene Bennett: sorry at their last 249 00:38:58.080 --> 00:38:59.000 Charlene Bennett: slide. 250 00:38:59.730 --> 00:39:10.510 Lesley Cottrell: So, Charlene and and Christy and Kim I I wanted to touch base, because I think we've had a Jillian and had her hand raised for a while, maybe some background, and maybe a few other things. If you don't mind 251 00:39:10.820 --> 00:39:13.239 Lesley Cottrell: to fill in the gaps, Gillian. 252 00:39:14.830 --> 00:39:22.550 gillian mccarty: Yeah, a couple of things. One. What happened to the medical professionals that did not disclose 253 00:39:22.780 --> 00:39:24.230 gillian mccarty: the obvious 254 00:39:24.880 --> 00:39:31.029 gillian mccarty: information that they should have, so that you could have been prepared. I will say you likely wouldn't have taken him 255 00:39:31.220 --> 00:39:38.859 gillian mccarty: had you been prepared. So maybe that was the good Lord's divine intervention, because it sounds to me like everybody that's 256 00:39:40.130 --> 00:39:41.830 gillian mccarty: involved now 257 00:39:42.230 --> 00:39:44.260 gillian mccarty: is definitely sticking it 258 00:39:44.290 --> 00:39:47.959 gillian mccarty: and working with him, and and has enough 259 00:39:48.717 --> 00:39:51.429 gillian mccarty: guts to tell the State, you know. 260 00:39:51.490 --> 00:39:55.700 gillian mccarty: and and everybody else. Listen. You've got to let us do this. You gave us this mess. 261 00:39:56.150 --> 00:39:59.190 gillian mccarty: Get out and let us do what we need to do 262 00:40:00.495 --> 00:40:01.270 gillian mccarty: but 263 00:40:02.090 --> 00:40:08.230 gillian mccarty: happens to those professionals that deliberately didn't disclose. I mean, this isn't a little thing. This is. 264 00:40:08.230 --> 00:40:11.200 Charlene Bennett: So I love you jumping. I you know it's hard. 265 00:40:11.270 --> 00:40:13.390 Charlene Bennett: There were so many reports 266 00:40:13.520 --> 00:40:17.990 Charlene Bennett: that came to us, you know. Sometimes you get inundated with stacks of reports. 267 00:40:18.070 --> 00:40:24.609 Charlene Bennett: and you know we looked back at these reports, and there was really nothing that now you know. 268 00:40:24.930 --> 00:40:33.140 Charlene Bennett: that I saw, or you saw Kim. I don't know about you, but you know they said he had gird. You know they said that you know, when he came from another 269 00:40:33.610 --> 00:40:35.550 Charlene Bennett: setting there was on. 270 00:40:35.860 --> 00:40:37.440 Charlene Bennett: There was. There were 271 00:40:37.550 --> 00:40:46.464 Charlene Bennett: doctors as part of their team. Maybe they just did a visual. I don't know, you know the gagging. We challenged it 272 00:40:46.940 --> 00:40:50.130 Charlene Bennett: when we went back and asked, Hey. 273 00:40:50.380 --> 00:41:10.340 Charlene Bennett: you you guys didn't share all of this with us? Really. The only information that we were then given was well he didn't. He wasn't exhibiting these behaviors in the facility that he was in at the time that we received him, and I gotta be careful to everybody, because, you know, I don't. Wanna. But there were lots of report 274 00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:16.280 Charlene Bennett: but what I saw where some of these reports didn't get into the nitty gritty that we saw. 275 00:41:16.280 --> 00:41:28.529 Kim Shontz: And and part of that is something that we struggle with, and I'm sure you do, too, in West Virginia that guardians will say I don't want you to to include that. And that was part of what happened here. When I questioned it. 276 00:41:28.530 --> 00:41:30.020 Charlene Bennett: That's exactly what we. 277 00:41:30.020 --> 00:41:41.250 Kim Shontz: Yeah, cause we noticed the the materials that we got as part of Sst when I flipped through it. And we kind of were hoodwinked also because we received the referral to get involved with 278 00:41:41.250 --> 00:42:04.080 Kim Shontz: Tj prior to him going out. But then they withheld the actual referral form, and then, when they did send it. He had already moved to Ieg, so we and they didn't tell us that. So we weren't able to get to know him in the sow prior to him moving into Ieg. Thank God, we have a good relationship with Iad. So we immediately called, said, Oh, my gosh! Like what happened? But in questioning it, cause I had one set of information, and when I compared it with Charlene 279 00:42:04.100 --> 00:42:16.009 Kim Shontz: we found out that the mom did not let any of the behavioral data from the 2 quarters prior to discharge. Go out and there was discrepancies in the medications. There was all sorts of stuff, but 280 00:42:16.250 --> 00:42:24.639 Kim Shontz: I understand the question, and I appreciate what you're saying in terms of who should be held responsible for this. But it's gonna go back to the Guardian. That's what everybody will 281 00:42:25.418 --> 00:42:28.641 Kim Shontz: throw out there, as the reason why they do not receive the. 282 00:42:28.910 --> 00:42:35.979 Charlene Bennett: And then we what what? We didn't get into too much detail. But what ended up happening as well is during the time 283 00:42:36.270 --> 00:42:41.210 Charlene Bennett: that you know, he had to go to the er to be checked. The Guardian was. 284 00:42:41.340 --> 00:42:51.709 Charlene Bennett: I gotta be. I'm gonna keep really very. You don't know what you're doing. You're terrible. You're no good, you know, and I was just. It was just 285 00:42:51.720 --> 00:42:54.090 Charlene Bennett: shocking to me, because. 286 00:42:54.170 --> 00:43:01.330 Charlene Bennett: you know, you must do takedowns. You know it was, I was so distraught by the 287 00:43:03.317 --> 00:43:12.449 Charlene Bennett: lack of what I felt support. And then we were specifically told that the independent case management entity 288 00:43:12.580 --> 00:43:19.760 Charlene Bennett: heard from this person that said that they specifically were given instruction not to send us everything. 289 00:43:20.230 --> 00:43:31.790 Charlene Bennett: I mean, and also just as an example. In one of our slides. You saw a photo where there was like an orange pillow, and and like what looked like a cage. 290 00:43:32.253 --> 00:43:53.160 Charlene Bennett: We were not given that information prior to his arrival, either that his mother actually, when she comes for a visit at the facility he was at, and actually now currently as well, she actually had a steel rebar cage put up in between the front seats in the back seats of her vehicle. 291 00:43:53.360 --> 00:44:12.889 Charlene Bennett: because he is that aggressive to keep her safe with him. I had several lengthy communications with the mom prior to his arrival, and that was never mentioned as part of what you know, when we what we thought we were doing to do due diligence was having lots of conversations, and 292 00:44:13.140 --> 00:44:27.170 Charlene Bennett: what I was told is had nothing to do with him being in that environment because of the challenging of behavior, it was because of the closure. So I think I love the question you asked, because, you know, I found out after 293 00:44:28.280 --> 00:44:38.369 Charlene Bennett: that several of the current staff in the previous place had gotten gravely injured. But we did not know any of that. But I think the message here is 294 00:44:39.320 --> 00:44:46.970 Charlene Bennett: even when you get someone that is totally you're blindsided, and we I will say we were blindsided. 295 00:44:47.500 --> 00:44:57.630 Charlene Bennett: and it caused a lot of, at least from my perspective anxiety, completely fear that with the right mentality and attitude and 296 00:44:59.380 --> 00:45:01.090 Charlene Bennett: creativity 297 00:45:02.340 --> 00:45:07.506 Charlene Bennett: it can be done. I don't know if I'd want to do 2 anymore. These situations, everybody but 298 00:45:08.190 --> 00:45:12.120 gillian mccarty: That's my next question. So you all aren't in the State of West Virginia. Correct? 299 00:45:12.120 --> 00:45:13.570 Charlene Bennett: Say that again. Please. 300 00:45:13.760 --> 00:45:15.649 gillian mccarty: You're not in the State of West Virginia. 301 00:45:16.010 --> 00:45:16.790 Charlene Bennett: No. 302 00:45:17.370 --> 00:45:24.189 gillian mccarty: So what is available in your state for these extra things? Because 303 00:45:24.300 --> 00:45:27.530 gillian mccarty: obviously there's now there's no roommate. 304 00:45:27.710 --> 00:45:31.059 gillian mccarty: There's no roommates. Help him pay for the for the home. 305 00:45:31.820 --> 00:45:32.720 gillian mccarty: There's 306 00:45:33.080 --> 00:45:37.240 gillian mccarty: you've got to be paying people extra money. They're losing extremities like. 307 00:45:37.553 --> 00:45:58.590 Charlene Bennett: So let me, I'll jump in. With that I made a decision early on as a founder of Ig. And you're right. He's supposed to have roommates, and we are going to be admitting the roommates. I think in this situation it was less expensive, having him live in the community that perhaps in his setting, so it was cost neutral to the state. 308 00:45:59.016 --> 00:46:13.549 Charlene Bennett: So that's that is absolutely true. The way the housing works is with social security at at our cost. We're not getting reimbursed for that at all. And a lot of these techniques you're hearing about. We just we did that 309 00:46:14.830 --> 00:46:22.620 Charlene Bennett: you just did it. We just did it. We didn't expect some reimbursement for this, although I will say that. 310 00:46:23.274 --> 00:46:26.730 Charlene Bennett: I think that there was a little bit more 311 00:46:26.770 --> 00:46:31.150 Charlene Bennett: resource accommodation due to the fact that 312 00:46:32.730 --> 00:46:36.100 Charlene Bennett: there was a I gotta be careful what I say. 313 00:46:36.660 --> 00:46:42.980 Charlene Bennett: Such a high profile, if that was such a high profile person that the State was being 314 00:46:43.450 --> 00:46:51.810 Charlene Bennett: Kim. Maybe you can help me with the word, so I don't put foot in my mouth here. It was a very high profile. Situation, and other external entities were involved. 315 00:46:52.230 --> 00:47:10.859 Kim Shontz: Yeah. So they made sure that I ag had those supports already built into the rate, like one to one. And you know some of that other stuff. But I will say in Ieg was been phenomenal because they didn't even have a rate sheet or start getting paid for him for quite a few months, because what they had talked about with Charlene was not, did not come through on that rate sheet. 316 00:47:10.970 --> 00:47:19.360 Kim Shontz: So I know that for smaller providers. It's very difficult to provide supports that you're not getting reimbursed for, but that is something that they did for quite a while. 317 00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:22.420 gillian mccarty: Well, and I think we are at a point in our State 318 00:47:22.480 --> 00:47:23.880 gillian mccarty: where they're 319 00:47:24.130 --> 00:47:34.040 gillian mccarty: agencies have already exhausted the ability to do that for members. So because they've already exhausted any potential extra funds that they 320 00:47:34.090 --> 00:47:35.910 gillian mccarty: could, it possibly had. 321 00:47:36.280 --> 00:47:44.469 gillian mccarty: they wouldn't have the ability to foot the bill and hope of maybe getting anything back because they've already footed the bill so much 322 00:47:44.500 --> 00:47:50.329 gillian mccarty: to do right by the people that they have, that all all funds are exhausted ever all the way around. 323 00:47:50.330 --> 00:47:54.350 Charlene Bennett: And we agree. We understand we've been in the same place seriously. 324 00:47:54.350 --> 00:48:06.390 Lesley Cottrell: Little bit about that, because there's a couple of other questions in the chat. That's you know, this sounding wonderful. You all are sounding wonderful, and I know that you've been where we were. Can you talk a little bit about how you. 325 00:48:06.910 --> 00:48:09.860 Lesley Cottrell: what you did to get to where you are now? 326 00:48:10.380 --> 00:48:11.380 Charlene Bennett: Agency. 327 00:48:11.380 --> 00:48:14.431 Lesley Cottrell: As an agency. And then someone had asked, like, How big is your agency? 328 00:48:14.650 --> 00:48:27.013 Charlene Bennett: Alright. So let me. I just had this discussion yesterday, and I I have a little trauma over this founder. Lots of trauma, everyone. We had no money, 0 money, 329 00:48:28.950 --> 00:48:39.099 Charlene Bennett: and I. This is a long history. I swear. You know, you know, when I started Ig, when we started there was no money coming in, and we began providing supports to people. 330 00:48:39.140 --> 00:48:40.320 Charlene Bennett: and 331 00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:51.629 Charlene Bennett: we couldn't even get a we couldn't even get a bank to fund us. We had to use a bank from out of this country to fund us, and it had to be in my personal assets. So I mean, this is. 332 00:48:51.730 --> 00:48:54.040 Charlene Bennett: I'm not expecting anyone to do this, but 333 00:48:54.150 --> 00:49:17.720 Charlene Bennett: it I mean. Truly it was horrible. It was all we at that time in the State. We were a Grant agency rather than a fee for service. And so, even to get to that point to get anybody to even help us, it had to be based on my house, mortgage and all kinds of things. And so you're talking to someone who's lived through the trum of having no money, not having the resources 334 00:49:17.730 --> 00:49:23.179 Charlene Bennett: being in debt, worrying about me payroll every 2 weeks, and that's just a whole 335 00:49:24.240 --> 00:49:24.980 Charlene Bennett: true. 336 00:49:25.170 --> 00:49:46.440 Charlene Bennett: So how did we do it? I think that I I go back in time, and I think that a few things, you know, I just didn't want to give up. I didn't want to shut down the agency because of the funding, and so I sort of re pivoted in terms of going slow, making sure that that we could afford 337 00:49:47.730 --> 00:49:50.469 Charlene Bennett: what we were doing, we 338 00:49:51.230 --> 00:49:54.770 Charlene Bennett: kept things to a minimal in terms of administration. 339 00:49:55.178 --> 00:50:10.850 Charlene Bennett: I'm not suggesting anybody do this, but I work for years with a minimum salary. So our staff could have so early on. It was just a lot of struggle to get to where we are today. And what I try to do 340 00:50:11.030 --> 00:50:15.089 Charlene Bennett: as a CEO was trying to figure out how to diversify funds 341 00:50:15.570 --> 00:50:19.959 Charlene Bennett: from where we were getting funded. So I looked at other 342 00:50:19.980 --> 00:50:31.469 Charlene Bennett: opportunities to bring in additional revenue from other funding streams that could help us. So this isn't so. It was a balance of you know. I know this area was tough. 343 00:50:31.500 --> 00:50:44.849 Charlene Bennett: It was. We had terrible rates. We were one of the worst in the United States. If you looked at. We were 48 in the country, but part of the plan for me as an organization was. Look at other funding streams 344 00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:57.571 Charlene Bennett: to bring in revenue to balance some of this. So that's part of what I had to do to keep us with from folding. Truly. And 345 00:50:58.260 --> 00:51:00.439 Charlene Bennett: you know our offices are small. 346 00:51:00.630 --> 00:51:05.290 Charlene Bennett: you know, so we don't own a lot of big buildings or anything. So it was just 347 00:51:05.460 --> 00:51:12.160 Charlene Bennett: really being hesitant and spending money that we never had, and trying to figure out a way. 348 00:51:12.691 --> 00:51:16.299 Charlene Bennett: Putting as much resources with this, with the 349 00:51:17.330 --> 00:51:31.470 Charlene Bennett: for the staff, I will say, after doing this work from more years, and you can imagine there has definitely been a shift of staff. You know some of the earlier staff that that got employed here. 350 00:51:31.870 --> 00:51:41.920 Charlene Bennett: I'm not saying we don't have that now, but there was a different expectation. You know, some of our staff way back in the day made very minimal money. But 351 00:51:42.850 --> 00:51:51.199 Charlene Bennett: today we couldn't do that. The the mentality today is a lot different than maybe 30 years ago, when IG. Was started. But 352 00:51:53.350 --> 00:52:06.360 Charlene Bennett: I will say that you know, decisions have been made along the way to not support certain people that we weren't going to get funded. And it's been a long. It's been a long struggle in terms of how to get where we were today. 353 00:52:07.540 --> 00:52:13.620 Charlene Bennett: I don't know if that answers anybody's question to know how big we are now with size of the organization. 354 00:52:15.490 --> 00:52:27.890 Charlene Bennett: we as an organization have supports and services in different locations. We have many services in smaller towns. In Springfield, Illinois. 355 00:52:27.930 --> 00:52:33.339 Charlene Bennett: you know, we have, like 8 different areas that we provide supports in. We're also 356 00:52:33.530 --> 00:52:50.390 Charlene Bennett: a provider in Washington, DC. The District of Columbia. That was my idea at the time to try to bring in revenue to help us, because we thought well, we got funding from another area that might be able to balance Illinois. So we do have multiple environments throughout the State. 357 00:52:50.390 --> 00:53:03.999 Charlene Bennett: and then we have other funding streams as well that that we have brought into the organization. We have a Dcfs which is a Child Welfare Division. We have a contract with 358 00:53:04.040 --> 00:53:06.359 Charlene Bennett: a different State Department 359 00:53:07.028 --> 00:53:09.720 Charlene Bennett: to support their highest end youth. 360 00:53:09.960 --> 00:53:18.299 Charlene Bennett: and they're very high end everyone. They're the the folks that come from child welfare, juvenile justice types of situations. 361 00:53:18.650 --> 00:53:31.620 Charlene Bennett: We've also had done some work with case management for people with brain injuries. So we so as part of the strategy was, how can we look at other strings of funding to balance this horrific 362 00:53:32.070 --> 00:53:35.660 Charlene Bennett: lack of resources that we experienced as we grew. 363 00:53:36.280 --> 00:53:38.570 Lesley Cottrell: Thank you, and and I will say that 364 00:53:39.550 --> 00:53:44.960 Lesley Cottrell: Charlene and Kim have been has have visited West Virginia 365 00:53:45.260 --> 00:53:52.170 Lesley Cottrell: several times a few times. To share their experiences, and I hope to get you all back 366 00:53:52.250 --> 00:53:54.270 Lesley Cottrell: very soon. But to the. 367 00:53:54.520 --> 00:53:57.129 Lesley Cottrell: with the goal of learning from 368 00:53:57.440 --> 00:53:59.590 Lesley Cottrell: their process, and 369 00:53:59.880 --> 00:54:04.371 Lesley Cottrell: maybe doing what we can here in West Virginia. Moving forward. 370 00:54:04.810 --> 00:54:07.109 Lesley Cottrell: Tina, I see your hands raised. 371 00:54:07.280 --> 00:54:17.620 Tina Wiseman: Yeah, I did. This is Tina Weisman. I'm the Director of the States, Dd council, and just wanted to thank you for your hands off. Approach. I I think the 372 00:54:19.120 --> 00:54:24.960 Tina Wiseman: this young man has gone through a lifetime a short lifetime of wounding and trauma 373 00:54:25.220 --> 00:54:28.620 Tina Wiseman: that has gotten him to the place he is today, and 374 00:54:29.110 --> 00:54:34.270 Tina Wiseman: for you all to stand up in this difficult time and say you're not going to continue. 375 00:54:34.270 --> 00:54:35.641 Charlene Bennett: Thank you. Thank you so much. 376 00:54:35.870 --> 00:54:38.840 Tina Wiseman: Fluctuate that. I mean, I mean, yeah. 377 00:54:38.840 --> 00:54:44.827 Charlene Bennett: Oh, I got a lot of heat for that, I said. We're not doing it, and I got 378 00:54:46.840 --> 00:54:48.533 Charlene Bennett: yelled at 379 00:54:49.460 --> 00:54:50.600 Charlene Bennett: above the rock. 380 00:54:50.600 --> 00:54:56.269 gillian mccarty: I have a question about that, though. What would your approach have been had those Housemates already been in the home? 381 00:54:56.390 --> 00:54:59.329 gillian mccarty: Because I do have a member 382 00:54:59.380 --> 00:55:00.439 gillian mccarty: who is 383 00:55:00.490 --> 00:55:07.347 gillian mccarty: exhibiting some of these same behaviors, and because there are other members in the home that's not always the option. 384 00:55:08.700 --> 00:55:13.590 gillian mccarty: What would your advice be if that happened, and there were housemates. 385 00:55:13.790 --> 00:55:27.000 Charlene Bennett: We've had that situation with other persons and support. And we have techniques that we utilize, that if we see, you know, we look at environment where there people are added at a given time. And then we look at how we work 386 00:55:27.180 --> 00:55:39.679 Charlene Bennett: and and practicing getting people separated out and line of fire. And most importantly, what I would say is that we look at who we pair together, and 387 00:55:39.820 --> 00:55:49.239 Charlene Bennett: I, and we feel very strongly that if we have someone that's very violent and aggressive. Then we really take a look at who would be a good choice of a roommate. 388 00:55:49.660 --> 00:55:53.470 Charlene Bennett: and I cannot say enough about the environment. 389 00:55:54.074 --> 00:56:16.540 Charlene Bennett: The home that he is in. For example, we have moved furniture. We've added 3 quarter hype doors to provide safety for staff. We've removed things. The environment itself, I think, is the number one place to look at. 390 00:56:16.790 --> 00:56:45.779 Charlene Bennett: And you just really have to get creative. With where their bedrooms are versus even where you keep the pots and pans in the house, you know, if you have to bend over and not be in a line of sight. For example, can you move those someplace where it's easier? I mean, it's very detailed nuanced work to look at an environment like that. And we have safety plans for everyone and excuse me because we also operate short term crisis homes. 391 00:56:46.100 --> 00:56:59.560 Charlene Bennett: and everyone that comes to us is in crisis, and many of them with severe aggression. And so a lot of our technique and strategy is what Christie, we, we take a look at how to keep people safe. 392 00:56:59.580 --> 00:57:03.589 Charlene Bennett: How do we manage the environment? What are some of the techniques? 393 00:57:03.610 --> 00:57:07.000 Charlene Bennett: And so it is not easy. 394 00:57:07.200 --> 00:57:11.299 Charlene Bennett: And there are going to be situations where we think it could be unsafe. 395 00:57:11.699 --> 00:57:19.600 Charlene Bennett: And that's when we advocate that this is not a good set of roommates together, and we've become exceptionally absurd of is better term 396 00:57:20.740 --> 00:57:27.020 Charlene Bennett: over the years in advocating positions for accountability, and what we think 397 00:57:27.110 --> 00:57:29.230 Charlene Bennett: is in everybody's best interest. 398 00:57:30.830 --> 00:57:36.719 Lesley Cottrell: There's a question in the chat about how many agencies in the area offer crisis services. 399 00:57:36.740 --> 00:57:37.970 Lesley Cottrell: particularly. 400 00:57:40.780 --> 00:57:41.330 Lesley Cottrell: you know. 401 00:57:41.330 --> 00:57:44.589 Charlene Bennett: Well, Kim's team, does Kim, you wanna jump in on this one. 402 00:57:45.864 --> 00:57:51.240 Kim Shontz: I I you're talking about Illinois, not West Virginia. Correct. I wanna make sure that I'm not answering it for the wrong state. 403 00:57:52.050 --> 00:57:53.359 Lesley Cottrell: Right. Sorry. Yes. 404 00:57:53.360 --> 00:58:15.929 Kim Shontz: But there's there's only in Illinois there's one crisis probe sorry crisis stabilization residential program. And Ieg is the biggest of the 2 organizations that though, do provide those services. So there's 2 statewide. And then there's 2 agencies statewide that collaborate our agency and another one to do those 405 00:58:16.230 --> 00:58:30.950 Kim Shontz: support service team functions where we receive referrals for people who are in crisis, and we go out to them in their agency or their family home or their icft, or wherever they might be living, to provide those services on site. So a total of 4 statewide. 406 00:58:31.620 --> 00:58:32.429 Lesley Cottrell: Thank you. 407 00:58:33.740 --> 00:58:39.187 Susan Given: This is Susan given. I'm sorry I have. Can't have never figured out how to raise my hand. 408 00:58:39.830 --> 00:58:40.810 Susan Given: I just 409 00:58:41.460 --> 00:58:47.969 Susan Given: you know I'm I'm with Tina. I just want to thank you so much for taking that hands off approach. And 410 00:58:48.030 --> 00:58:51.890 Susan Given: you know it sounds like the staff we're all in 411 00:58:51.900 --> 00:59:03.549 Susan Given: that they received the training that they needed to receive, and they weren't on their cell phones. They were paying attention and doing what they were hired to do so. Just it sounds like you 412 00:59:03.560 --> 00:59:05.739 Susan Given: have done a great job, and. 413 00:59:05.740 --> 00:59:08.779 Charlene Bennett: Thank you, Susan. And can you can you imagine. 414 00:59:10.939 --> 00:59:21.179 Charlene Bennett: pushing this approach with people who have been accustomed to thinking, the only way to manage. This is through. 415 00:59:21.570 --> 00:59:35.080 Charlene Bennett: That's this. Yeah. And I've been, you know, and even when I brought it up to Christy I thought she thought I was nuts excuse the term very professional here, but I learned early on in my career through a very 416 00:59:35.370 --> 00:59:59.969 Charlene Bennett: one of my mentors, that aggression can make it worse. And so we knew that there was going to be an increase before a decrease. But we also knew it was going to be a long term struggle, and it's it's not over. But we just. I've always we've always felt. I'm not suggesting that you don't keep yourself safe. That's not. But to use a restraint to to. We just weren't going to do it, and. 417 00:59:59.970 --> 01:00:00.939 Susan Given: Can you imagine? 418 01:00:00.940 --> 01:00:02.099 Kim Shontz: I mean, I did want to. 419 01:00:02.390 --> 01:00:04.430 Susan Given: Can you imagine if you were 420 01:00:04.790 --> 01:00:09.999 Susan Given: frustrated, you couldn't communicate. You were in pain, or whatever, and you were. 421 01:00:10.620 --> 01:00:16.260 Susan Given: didn't have any other choice really other than to act out. And then the response to the people around. 422 01:00:16.260 --> 01:00:17.420 Charlene Bennett: Right to revive. 423 01:00:17.420 --> 01:00:21.890 Susan Given: Train you or tackle you, or whatever I mean, that has to just make it work. 424 01:00:21.890 --> 01:00:25.140 Charlene Bennett: There. And and and the other thing we didn't bring up, I think we should have 425 01:00:25.340 --> 01:00:47.510 Charlene Bennett: is that we spend a lot of time trying to understand his communication with us, and you know a lot of what we do. He has an ipad. He points things you know, we've learned, and they've learned with time that an eye glance away moves his head. You know, all these nuances have been given us a lot of communicative feedback. 426 01:00:47.510 --> 01:00:57.280 Charlene Bennett: It's not traditional right? It's not just. Here's the IP, and I'm gonna say, unhappy. But it's through intense observation of getting to know the person 427 01:00:57.280 --> 01:01:02.869 Charlene Bennett: and the other thing we did when we assigned staff. I know this sounds odd, but 428 01:01:02.930 --> 01:01:06.570 Charlene Bennett: you know we really looked at who smiles a lot 429 01:01:06.660 --> 01:01:13.420 Charlene Bennett: and who does he smile with in terms of our employees. So we really try to match 430 01:01:13.560 --> 01:01:28.229 Charlene Bennett: that those smiles to those staff that we're going to be part of that home environment. It was a very unique way of doing it, since he was not someone who could communicate. But we we really match those folks with his 431 01:01:28.250 --> 01:01:31.179 Charlene Bennett: communication through the smiles, and I think. 432 01:01:31.180 --> 01:01:32.130 Kim Shontz: Do? I. 433 01:01:32.130 --> 01:01:33.880 Charlene Bennett: As as maybe 434 01:01:34.562 --> 01:01:55.094 Charlene Bennett: flighty as it sounds. You also really have to believe that they can learn a different way to express themselves. Dr. Bennett kept reiterating that over and over again. We are not going to do physical restraints. It's our responsibility to help him learn other ways to communicate with us. 435 01:01:56.223 --> 01:01:56.870 Kim Shontz: Want us. 436 01:01:56.870 --> 01:01:57.679 Charlene Bennett: Oh, sorry! 437 01:01:58.450 --> 01:02:27.079 Kim Shontz: I I just wanted to say real quick from a technical perspective, though. I totally agree that you know we should always be hands off, and we should never restrain people. However, I still think both i ag and the Ssh programs, the Sst programs. We all go something through something called safety care training, which is through Qbf. And it does teach minimal holds. But the most important part of what it teaches is basic behavior, principles and verbal de escalation, and also ha! For the staff. How to get out of here pulls how to get out. 438 01:02:27.080 --> 01:02:27.469 Charlene Bennett: Yeah, but. 439 01:02:27.736 --> 01:02:52.279 Kim Shontz: How to get out, and and I really feel that that gives the staff those tools to make them feel more confident to work with that person. So you know, you can just do that first level of a physical hold, because there might. I just wanna say there might be that one time that someone's running into traffic, and you do have to stop them right? Or they're coming at someone with scissors. So once again, never. We should never use physical restraints, just use physical restraints. But I still 440 01:02:52.280 --> 01:03:00.880 Kim Shontz: highly recommend people to have that formal crisis prevention training, whether it's Qvs safety, care, or Dpi, or any of the other. 441 01:03:00.880 --> 01:03:24.090 Charlene Bennett: Yeah. Because when when I mentioned the training about protection techniques, I was really I should have used the word safety care, because that was such what Kim's describing was so important, because it's a very. And that's Sst really got us aware of this, it? That was part of the major training that was done is how to create the self protection and what you can do. It was, it's a phenomenal tool 442 01:03:24.500 --> 01:03:27.679 Charlene Bennett: to teach your staff safety care absolutely. 443 01:03:28.360 --> 01:03:30.959 Susan Given: Well, and and all of this is is work. 444 01:03:31.170 --> 01:03:39.310 Susan Given: You know not that tackling someone or restraining someone is easy, necessarily, but it's quick. 445 01:03:39.940 --> 01:03:50.320 Susan Given: And so, you know, not standing back and looking at the you know the observations. You know the the eyes, shift the head, turn that sort of thing that's just 446 01:03:50.690 --> 01:03:56.290 Susan Given: critical. And again, I just it's just wonderful to to hear he talk. 447 01:03:57.590 --> 01:03:58.569 Charlene Bennett: Thank you. 448 01:04:00.310 --> 01:04:00.750 Lesley Cottrell: Will you. 449 01:04:00.750 --> 01:04:08.450 Charlene Bennett: For this situation, any kind of you know, beyond the for self protection was going to result in something very dangerous. 450 01:04:08.885 --> 01:04:11.199 Charlene Bennett: For staff as well as him. 451 01:04:11.730 --> 01:04:27.550 Charlene Bennett: and you know what he did a few time, I mean this, we he would lunge and bash his head was just. We just realized that protection was paramount, the safety, skill, technique for that. But beyond that we had to not use absolutely. It was not going to be successful. 452 01:04:28.830 --> 01:04:40.739 Charlene Bennett: and we don't think it's normalized in the community, either. You go into the community you don't expect, you know, someone to be, you know, doing. Could you get a take down would be called thinking you were solving somebody. 453 01:04:41.180 --> 01:04:41.800 Lesley Cottrell: Right. 454 01:04:42.880 --> 01:05:12.560 Lesley Cottrell: So there's a couple of questions in the chat. If I could ask Charlene Kim and Christie, if I can send those to you. I think some of the resources would be a little bit more about Ieg, and and from your experiences we could add that if you all are comfortable. I'll work with you all to get that. And and we can add that to the materials for this session. If that's okay, cause we are at one, and I'll I don't wanna keep people too long. But I do. Wanna respond to more questions that are in here about 455 01:05:12.570 --> 01:05:15.215 Lesley Cottrell: what you do and and how you do it? 456 01:05:15.620 --> 01:05:17.969 Lesley Cottrell: so that we could possibly model it. So 457 01:05:18.070 --> 01:05:23.399 Lesley Cottrell: thank you. Time. We really appreciate. I think everyone liked it and wants it 458 01:05:24.340 --> 01:05:29.960 Lesley Cottrell: quickly, so we'll bring you back. But thank you for for covering the case for us today. 459 01:05:30.300 --> 01:05:32.280 Charlene Bennett: Thank you all. Thank you. 460 01:05:32.550 --> 01:05:43.910 Lesley Cottrell: Thank you. Everyone people are telling me about certificate of attendance. If if you didn't get a chance to put it in the chat. Send me an email. Happy to do that, and otherwise have a great afternoon. 461 01:05:43.910 --> 01:05:46.030 Charlene Bennett: Thank you. Thank you. 462 01:05:46.030 --> 01:05:46.860 Lesley Cottrell: Thank you. 463 01:05:47.230 --> 01:05:48.470 Kim Shontz: Thank you for having us. 464 01:05:49.050 --> 01:05:50.140 Charlene Bennett: Thank you all.