Northern Community Resources
(907) 225-6355
FAX 225-6354
Homer,
Abbey Kucera, Community Member
Jean Steele, Community Member
Kari van Delden, Peer Reviewer
Carol Manninen, ILP Technical Specialist
John Havrilek, Facilitator
A review of Homer Children’s Services’ (HCS) Early
Intervention/Infant Learning Program (EI/ILP) in Homer was conducted from
This report is the summation of the impressions of a community team after interviewing 13 consumers, 4 staff members, community members, and 13 staff of other related agencies. It also includes a limited administrative review. It does not represent or reflect a comprehensive review of this agency. The community team has collaborated on this report and the findings represent their consensus.
Homer Children’s Services’ ILP has provided services to
this area since 1982. The agency serves 25-30 children and their families in
Homer, Ninilchik,
EI/ILP has 2.75 staff, plus a 0.5 Parents as Teachers staff member serving these families with the assistance of contract help for occupational therapy and physical therapy services. Present staffing and contract services have enabled EI/ILP to serve all its families and at this time there are no children on an ILP wait list.
The EI/ILP staff offer the following services: Child Find activities using the “Ages and Stages Questionnaire;” evaluation to determine eligibility; development of the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP); home visits; family assistance activities; family service coordination; monthly parent discussion groups; weekly play groups; loan of developmentally appropriate toys and equipment; monthly newsletter; access to the internet; transition assistance; contract services from private therapists and a “Parents as Teachers Program.”
These services are funded through Alaskan Children’s Trust
and
.
Description of
Process
A team of five conducted the consumer-centered site review. The team members included two community members, a peer reviewer, an ILP technical specialist and one facilitator. Over the course of the three-day review the team conducted 31 interviews with 1 Board member, 13 representatives of related agencies, 13 EI/ILP consumers or their parents or guardians, and 4 staff members.
The interviews lasted from 15 minutes to one hour and were conducted by telephone or in person, in private homes, at the HCS EI/ILP office or at other community agencies.
Open Forum
There was an Open Forum held the first night of the review at Homer City Council Chambers. The forum was advertised in the newspapers, on the radio stations and through newsletters. The advertising was extremely complete and the agency is commended on their very thorough efforts.
One team member and the peer reviewer attended the forum on a beautiful sunny evening. No one from the community attended the forum.
Progress Since Last
Review
The review team feels that interviews show ILP staff is offering Choice within ILP’s limited staff resources. There was a lot of knowledge shown by families regarding services and service providers. They are happy with ILP’s quick response for evaluations and services and working around families’ schedules.
The team identified the following strengths in the area of Choice and Self-Determination for those receiving EI/ILP services:
+ “ Infant
Learning bends over backwards to meet my needs.”
+ “ILP
tailors their services to what I needed.”
+ “She
always asks my opinion.”
+ “They
always show concern for my needs.”
+ “They
always give me a choice.”
+ “She
has a nice way of explaining what my child needs and then asks what services I
am interested in.”
+ “I
could not ask for better.”
+ “It
makes it very convenient for them to come to my house.”
+ “The
ILP Director does a great job of writing grants and bringing monies into ILP.”
The team identified the following weaknesses in the area of Choice and Self-Determination for those receiving EI/ILP services:
-
“I was a little confused in the initial
evaluation on what the program provides, but the follow-up eval. made things
more clear.”
-
“Hard
to get enough PT with what is provided.
My child needs PT more often.”
-
“Overall I’ve had a good experience, but
initially I felt pressured to take ILP services and come to playgroups.”
Dignity, Respect and
Rights
The review team found this to be a definite area of strength. Parents consistently report they are told their rights right away and feel respected by staff.
The team identified the following strengths in the area of Dignity, Respect and Rights for those receiving EI/ILP services:
+ “They are
very respectful of different parenting styles.”
+ “(ILP)
makes you feel good about services. They
use a menu style.”
+ “(They
are) very respectful. ILP always tries
to fit our schedule.”
+
“(They are)very good with children and I like them coming to my house.”
+ “They
showed me how to work with my son. Now I
am more confident.”
+
“Absolutely, she is wonderful. She has
become part of our family.”
+ “Definitely,
my son loves working with her. He gets
excited as soon as she comes in.”
+ “The
best things are the cool things she brings in for my child to do.”
+ “She
is always there to meet my needs.”
The team did not identify any weaknesses in the area of Dignity, Respect and Rights.
The team heard no concerns from parents regarding safety issues. All the comments were very positive in this area from parents. The staff appears very aware of safety issues and very proactive.
The team identified the following strengths in the area of Health, Safety and Security for those receiving EI/ILP services:
+ “I always
see them cleaning the toys.”
+ “Yes,
they caught things I was unaware of that were important safety concerns.”
+ “The
children come first with them.”
+ “The
playroom is safe and everything in there is for children.”
+ “They
give really good suggestions of where to go for what my child needs.”
+ “The
P/T has been a life-saver.”
+
“Their evaluation lead to my child needing surgery to hear.”
+ “The
newsletter gives a lot of safety and health tips.”
+ “Safety
is not a problem since one provider left.”
The team identified the following weakness in the area of
Health, Safety and Security for those receiving EI/ILP services:
“They should feel freer to set up safety rules during
playgroup.”
The review team felt that the ILP staff absolutely supports and involves families in service delivery.
The team identified the following strengths in the area of Relationships for those receiving EI/ILP services:
+ “She
works well with me, my husband and my mother (and) teaches us all to work with
my son.”
+
“Absolutely, they involve and support my whole family.”
+ “The
playgroups really help in our parent-child relationships.”
+ “Now that
our child’s hearing has improved, our child plays with other kids and relates
better with our whole family. This free service of evaluation kept our child
from being deaf.”
The team did not identify any weaknesses in the area of Relationships.
Homer Children’s Services ILP staff involves children in the community through playgroups offered at the center.
The team identified the following strengths in the area of Community Participation for those receiving EI/ILP services:
+
“Playgroup is a great social format to meet people and other families.”
+
“Playgroups have helped a lot, especially on how my children relate to other
children.”
+
“(Playgroup is) a good place to meet other parents and share resources.”
+ “The
monthly newsletter is very informative and explains a lot of what’s going on
the community.”
+ “ILP
is a great resource. I never feel alone.”
+ “Information
being learned from ILP is being shared with friends and neighbors that have
kids.”
The team identified the following weakness in the area of Community Participation for those receiving EI/ILP services:
-“ I wish more parents of children with severe
disabilities would come to the playgroups.”
Note: The team also received several positive comments regarding the Parents as Teachers program that provide a further insight into the quality of services.
+ “Parents as
Teachers Program compliments ILP services, it’s a nice, soft stepping stone
into ILP.”
+ “The staff
tailors services to what I need.”
+ “I feel a
personal connection with staff that made it a very positive experience for me.”
+ “(A real
strength is) meeting other parents to share resources.”
+ “Five children
came from basic services into ILP.”
A total of 4 staff members from HCS EI/ILP were interviewed. The staff interviewed had been with the agency from 8 months to 14 years. The overwhelming attitude in responses to the 5 life areas is that the staff feel that services are very consumer-driven and consumer-responsive.
All staff feel that the orientation to the agency and its mission is very good. Staff say they have good support in their job and for training experiences. They also report being evaluated on a regular basis and having input into that evaluation process.
Of the 43 standards for EI/ILP services, HCS fully meets 41 of them. There is concern regarding the long periods of closure in December and January and again in July and August. This results in a partial compliance with Standard #15 requiring services to be provided year round.
The other concern is Standard #26 on volunteerism. The agency does not have a policy to recruit volunteers, but does have a policy that a student teacher must volunteer 8 hours to the agency during their student teaching experience.
The ILP Technical
Specialist, Carol Manninen, reviewed several files and will file her report
separately from this one.
There were 13 staff interviewed from 7 different agencies. Four of those interviewed represent the same agency and their responses, all identical, were counted as one interview in the tally of related agency interviews.
The related agency staff are fairly positive regarding their feedback about the Infant Learning Program.
+ “Absolutely, the
agency follows through when we refer a child.”
+ “Absolutely, the
collaboration has positive outcomes for children.”
+ “ILP is an invaluable
resource to our community.”
+ “We mainly just
exchange papers but I have no problems with the program. I’m glad they are
there.”
+ “I’d like to
collaborate more with them. What we’ve done works well.”
+ “The Mental
Health/ILP collaboration has been very positive. I wish we could get the
dollars to expand it and help more families, focus on parenting skills and
prevention.”
Several concerns were also noted and were consistent throughout the interview process.
- “ILP is getting better at referring to agencies, but there are still problems in the transition process.”
- Agencies are requesting more meetings and collaboration with ILP.
- Agencies and parents express concern about long closures of ILP in Dec./Jan. and July /August.
- More Child Find activities in the villages and outlying areas are needed, as well as rebuilding relationships in those communities.
- Agencies report a larger ILP need than that now being served.
- Better public relations, communication and collaboration are needed.
- Referrals to Headstart seem to be left to parents.
- Referring out from ILP appears to be a problem.
- Records from ILP are not making it to direct service providers like the school district and Headstart.
- There are concerns in the community that the school system is denying children services.
- ILP needs to prepare parents for the change in qualifications to Headstart and the school district.
- The self evaluation process of the agency is not confidential.
- Agencies and families feel that there are enough OT and PT needs to support full time providers.
Areas Requiring Response
1. Seek to decrease long periods in which services are not offered. Standard #15
2. Create a policy on volunteerism. Standard #26
efforts with Public Health (1.2.1). This is still an area of concern especially in outlying
areas. The director states that this is a target area for the upcoming year. (Prior and
current reviews)
especially in the area of documenting referrals. The ILP staff needs to document phone
calls, e-mails, letters, etc. regarding referrals and related follow up. (Prior and current
reviews)
The final draft of this report will be sent to Northern Community Resources for review. You will receive the final report within approximately thirty days, including a Plan of Action form, listing the Areas Requiring Response. You will then have an additional thirty days to complete the Plan of Action. The directions on how to proceed from there will be included in a cover letter you will receive with the final report and Plan of Action form.
Once NCR has reviewed the completed Plan of Action, it will be sent to the Early Intervention Technical Assistant, Division of Public Health. The Early Intervention Technical Assistant will then contact you to develop collaboratively a plan for change.
Attachments: Administrative and Personnel Checklist, Interview Form for Staff of Related Agencies (tallied), Score sheet (tallied)
NCR 8/00