NJAMHAA News - October 2021

October 2021 6 OPC transitioned technology responsibilities from the human resources department to a new position—Director of Organizational Development and Technology—which AndrewMacMath, who previously served as a Care Manager and Care Manager Supervisor at OPC, took on at the end of 2020. “We partnered with NJAMHAA’s IT Project to put technology under my leadership. The timing was horrible and perfect at the same time,” MacMath stated. He recalled having 50 laptops at the NJAMHAA office in September to be set up by the IT Project staff. Then, OPC moved to a shared workspace, which involved a docking station at the agency for employees to share while some staff worked at home part-time. On March 16, 2020, when the pandemic lockdown began, the agency completely closed and all staff worked remotely. Because of the work of the IT Project and its partnership with OPC, the agency was well positioned to continue serving youth and families remotely. The next challenges were to maintain the agency’s server and security at the office, as well as hire more staff, which required more computers to purchase and get set up for the newworkers. “Back then, for six to nine months, my focus was on damage control. It was triage and a learning experience,” MacMath said, explaining that he and his team developed a disaster recovery plan as incidents occurred and, in some cases, after they happened. They also had to set up multiple-factor authentication, a system to ensure security by requiring two or more verification factors for individuals to gain access to applications, online accounts and virtual provider networks. “We’re more proactive now. We’re trying to document howwe did everything with the systems we developed during the pandemic and will tweak those processes moving forward. And, we’re thinking about how to bring staff back to the office. We set up a password policy with assistance from the IT Project staff and we purchased signature pads since our staff will continue to meet with families at their homes,” MacMath said. “COVIDwas a horrible thing, but for technology, all people’s resistance to using new technology didn’t matter because they had no choice. Staff had to use electronic forms,” MacMath noted. “It was hard in the beginning of the pandemic. People wanted to go into the office for certain things. Now, they’re so comfortable with technology and using it in new and different ways to serve our youth and families.” One of the benefits of technology is improved efficiency. For example, the OPC staff used to look in a binder for other providers’ contact information and call themwith referrals. “During COVID, we developed a system to send e-blasts to providers and get responses. The system automatically sends referrals and documents them in the clients’ records. This enables us to do more for the families we serve,” MacMath stated. Inroads to Opportunities For Inroads to Opportunities, COVID taught the staff how to use technology and stay connected. “We hadn’t leveraged technology before,” said Angela Calzone, Chief Operating Officer. “The pandemic put an interesting spin on things. Inroads closed at the beginning of the pandemic and we wanted to still deliver activities and services to our clients,” Calzone stated. So, the agency started providing group, individual and music therapy, as well as training and work-related activities, virtually. “We bag up projects and deliver them to clients’ homes, and we check in on them frequently via technology,” she added. “COVID afforded us the opportunity to do a whole assessment of our technology plan, to see what else we could be doing,” Calzone said. Triple CHousing The staff at Triple C Housing are very creative with their use of telehealth. They purchased an extra cell phone for each staff member to use with any client who does not have a phone or has a limited data plan. At each scheduled appointment time, a clinician leaves the phone at a client’s front door and notifies him that it’s there. So, the individuals can still receive the services in the comfort and privacy of their homes. At the end of each session, the phone is sanitized and then used with other clients. With individuals who are comfortable using FaceTime or a similar app, clinicians can “literally see how they are doing. We can see their body language and home environment. It enables us to stay connected without really being in their space, which also helps reduce their anxiety,” explained Kim Ewell, Chief Operating Officer. When staff do not need to go to clients’ homes, “telehealth cuts down on fatigue because there’s much less driving. So, it contributes to staff feeling relaxed and more engaged and not feeling pressured to cut a session short to drive to the next one,” Ewell said. The reduced need for driving is especially helpful in remote and rural locations. With telehealth, providers can reach significantly more people. Provider s Use Technology to Be [continued from page 5] October 2021