Technology Tuesday

This week’s Tech Tuesday was written by Imagine! Charles Family SmartHome staff members Alex Prokop and Christopher DiRosa. Thanks for sharing! 

The Imagine! team at the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont are excited to share news about residential efficiencies that we’ve been implementing over the past several months.

Here are some of the highlights:

Our team has been utilizing an iPad to synchronize a shared house calendar of all individuals’ appointments, outings, and important reminders for team members during shifts. We have also synchronized this shared tool with staff smartphones, as well as with house computers to provide a singular information. This has been effective in coordinating a wide range of activities and tasks from group outings, to tracking healthcare observations to identify and report health concerns to nursing, as well as new doctor orders.

By utilizing the iPad in this manner, our team is ensuring that all individuals are getting the highest level of care from staff by keeping our team informed and on time for appointments. Additionally, information and medication changes are being communicated more easily across multiple departments in a timelier manner.

The iPad has also been integrated with MedSupport to create a mobile platform for medication administration anywhere in the house or in the community where we have Wi-Fi access. This mobile tool has also been set up with a singular email with direct communication with our house nurse and other key staff so that important changes to medication or care needs can be accessed and acknowledged with greater efficiency. Through these enhancements, we at the Charles Family SmartHome have seen a trending reduction in medication errors at the house over the past three months.

Video conferencing has also been established so that house leadership, parents, guardians, and other team members can easily contact the house from off-site location using video conferencing applications like Facetime.

Residents are also using technology to develop their independence as contributing members of the Longmont community.

Shelly is pictured above using a Powerlink attached to a simple switch on her wheelchair to help puree her own food. Other residents have used the Powerlink to help prepare meals for the house, grind coffee, and to bake cookies. Residents are also using the iPad to increase their own skills and independence around the house and personally. Additionally, residents have used online resources to register to vote, shop online, and make online purchases.

Anthony likes using an application called My Journal (available for Android and Apple). He uses this application to talk about his day and his emotions. He accomplishing this by speaking into the iPad that uses built in dictation on the device. Anthony also uses the iPad to contact his family and friends using Facetime, and to check-in with Facebook to keep up with the news of the day with friends and family.

Stacey enjoys using the iPad to check the daily weather forecast and to update the house to ensure we’re all informed and prepare for the day accordingly. She does this by first identifying the weather app and then using a new wireless Bluetooth switch that is connected to the iPad so that she can navigate applications with minimal staff support.

Our team is also revamping a number of CU Engineering projects that teach and reinforce cause and effect.

Finally, we are testing four new tools:

• Fitbit devices targeted on tracking wake activity and sleep 
• Bluetooth headphones 
• Apple TV 
• Digital menus, and seven day task lists to assist staff 

As a team, our eye is always on the future! It is our job to seek out new tools and resources that are being developed each and every day to learn, and to become exceptional direct care professionals.

Guess Who's Touring The SmartHomes?

Touring Imagine!’s Charles Family SmartHome last week: St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) Innovation Center students and Axel Reitzig, the Innovation Center’s Robotics & Computer Science Coordinator.

The Innovation Center prepares SVVSD students for successful Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers by partnering with industry to provide real world work experiences. The Center’s mission is to match highly-skilled students with business, research and development opportunities, fostering analytical and problem-solving skills, encouraging entrepreneurial ambitions, and creating mentorships with experts in the STEM fields. What better place than our SmartHomes for students to learn first-hand how technology is changing the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities?

Many thanks to Imagine! ambassador extraordinaire Leona Stoecker for arranging and helping to host the tour.

Guess Who's Touring The SmartHomes?

Touring Imagine!’s Charles Family SmartHome on Monday: the Leachman family and Gia Wasik, who is studying interior design and was exploring the design aspects of the home.

Technology Tuesday

Want to learn how to draw? An Imagine! CORE/Labor Source art class has been trying out Osmo's Masterpiece app. Masterpiece allows users to pick an image from a camera or the web, which Masterpiece then transforms into easy-to-follow lines, helping to create beautiful drawings.

Technology Tuesday

This week's Tech Tuesday takes us to Imagine!’s CORE/Labor Source Longmont hub, where a clever use of a free chrome app called Pixcam becomes a powerful cause and effect tool. The app is very simple. It overlays a series of wild and weird filters over your webcam, and the filters change with the press of a switch. And that's all there is to it! It's free, easy, fun, and ultimately a powerful way to allow individuals who are non-verbal and have other intellectual disabilities to learn to express choices and interact intentionally with the world around them.

Congratulations, Margaret

Check out this post from “The Innovations Blog” about an employee at the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome being recognized for her great work. 

Every month, Imagine!'s Innovations department presents the “Super Hero of the Month” award to the employee or provider who has best demonstrated excellence in one or more of our Innovations Quality Standards:

• Health, Safety, and Wellbeing 
• Effective and Efficient 
• Respect and Dignity 
• Opportunities 
• Integrity 
• Care 

This month, the award was presented to Margaret Kuwata, who is a Primary Residential Counselor for our Bob and Judy Charles Group Home (one of our two SmartHomes).

Margaret was nominated by her supervisor, who wrote:

Due to some management and staff changes, Margaret is currently working extra hours each week to help take over most of the assistant site supervisor responsibilities at the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome. This has been a great help to me and the house. She has been able to accomplish all the extra tasks completely, and this is really helping me keep the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome stable. She has also taken the initiative to help solve any issues that occur, and report back to me that things have been handled. She has done a fantastic job this first week of being the "interim" assistant supervisor. Also, Margaret is always willing to plan outings that are meaningful to the individuals at the home, and recently took four people by herself for a girl’s day out.

If you see Margaret around, please congratulate her on being our Super Hero of the Month!

Technology Tuesday

With the new addition of a power link device to the Charles Family SmartHome, Shelly and her housemates are able to control blenders, mixers, coffee grinders, and much more with a touch of their switch and participate independently in meal preparation and other daily tasks.