JAN'S GROUP HOME SUPPORT

For those who use Therap, you have probably already come up against a problem when you have relief staff in the home from another house. Since each support staff can only be entered at one house at a time, there is no way to give relief staff in a group home access to the Therap T-logs for the house, have the ability to write incident reports, etc.

I have come up with a solution. Create a “staff” at each house with the last name of “Relief” and the first name, the name of the group home. Having each house with same last name (relief) will keep them grouped together in one spot since the staff is listed alphabetically by last name. There would be an easy to remember password. This way the relief staff could have access to Therap and the other group home staff, group home manager, and others who read the Therap T-logs will have access to the relief staff’s shift information, also.

11. Shaping-reinforcement technique where a reward is used what the are attempts or close approximations to accomplish a task or behavior goal.

12. Token Economies-a reinforcement system where symbols or tokens that have no value are exchanged for an item of value or an activity.

13. Differential Reinforcement-reinforcers (that are identified as successful) are consistently awarded for desired behaviors and not awarded when the person does not display desired behavior. “Selective Attention” is when attention is used in the same way.

14. Fading of Reinforcement-gradually replacing “artificial” (tokens, stars, money, etc) with “natural” (praise, acknowledgment, pride in positive behavior/task done right, etc) rewards.

15. Incidental Teaching-using random, unplanned occurrences to give the person an opportunity to learn on the spot.

Teaching Techniques/Strategies 1-5.

Teaching Techniques/Strategies 6-10

Well, the past few days I have been working on my home office organization. It makes a difference to have a place for things. It is more relaxing to enter my office when it is orderly. The same is true for group homes for the disabled. There may be limits on what can be done with a resident’s room, but rest of the house can be organized in a way that it streamlines tasks.

Office/work space-in a group home, it is important to keep the home looking like a home, so put any bulletin boards, filing cab nets, books, and any other “office type” items where they are not seen from the front door. The fist impression of the resident’s home is that it is a HOME, not an office or mini institution.

Kitchen-when organizing a kitchen, not only should items be near the place they will be used be taken in account, but also the traffic flow. For narrow hall-like kitchens, put items that the group home residents will want to get themselves (silverware, cereal, plates, etc.) should be in the cabinets at the entrance to the kitchen.

Storage-keep all cleaning items in one safe place. In cabinets, have all like items together. It will make it easier to make a shopping list and not duplicate items that are already there and may not be easily seen. When possible, store things where they are needed.

Encourage staff in group homes to put things back where they are stored so that they are easily found by other group home staff.

An organized group home will run more smoothly. It is up to the group home manager to set the tone that it is expected in the group home to be organized.