People Caring For and About People
24 Hour Residential Living
Focused on Every Aspect of Life
For years, Chrysalis' main service has been 24 hour shared home living arrangements, sometimes called residential support. We have been improving shared home services since 1985 and are continually refining and improving our processes and services. We wake up every day and pour our care, compassion, and resources into perfecting this model. It is our life work! We are proud of the many services we now offer and look forward to guiding you through each one of them!
Our main goal is the ultimate happiness of the people we serve. As we learned from Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a good life is built on a foundation of food, shelter, and clothing. Quality of life further increases as we add health, safety, personal security, and resources. Friendship, family, and a sense of connection make up the next tier, followed by respect, recognition, and freedom. Chrysalis puts all these pieces in place to achieve these tiers of quality life. But the thing we are most excited about is the "adjacent possible." Chrysalis believes we open new adjacent possibilities when we introduce new relationships, new skills, new connections, new job opportunities, and new recreational activities. People will gain respect, peace, and belonging by reducing problem behavior and things that will detract from making these critical connections. As we support them to live their lives and introduce new opportunities, they will become the most they can be and have the best life we can give.
Providing Opportunities To Connect with New People and Experiences
Unlocking the Adjacent Possible
You can visualize life as a web of connected dots (see below). The dots represent people you have met, activities you have engaged in, skills you have learned. Some dots shine brighter in your life and represent special connections, discoveries, or memories. Each dot has the potential to lead to a new adjacent possible discovery. For instance, an acquaintance may introduce you to a friend you have never met, thus connecting you to a new adjacent possible relationship. A friend may also have a hobby they introduce you to. This new hobby may become a new meaningful connection in your life. Maybe it is the new hobby that you excel at and love. Perhaps it is a restaurant or recipe that makes you excited. New skills may open up new adjacent possibilities like work opportunities, service opportunities, and even more potential connections with new people.
At Chrysalis, we know that fundamental skills like communication and socialization unlock innumerable adjacent possibilities. Even simple things like toileting or socially acceptable behaviors can open incredible opportunities for the people we serve. We take people where they are and continually provide opportunities to connect, progress, and explore their lives. We believe this method will create the best options for a rich and enjoyable life.
Self-actualization occurs as we explore and live life to its fullest! Connection to our family, friends, memories, skills, talents, employment and life experiences create a rich historical tapestry and incredible future possibilities. Our goal is bright and shining memories and individualized opportunities for every person at Chrysalis.
OVERCOMING CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS & MASTERING NEW LIFE SKILLS
Behavioral Services
Chrysalis has an incredible group of certified Behavior Analysts that help people to progress. Typically, the initial focus of a behavior analyst will be on behavior that makes them unsafe or limits their ability to participate fully in life experiences. For instance, an individual may come into services with a suggestion to never take them into a grocery store or busy place due to unwanted behavior. Other individuals may engage in self-harm, harm of others, or property destruction. Many parents have been worried that we won't accept their son or daughter if they engage in these behaviors. Chrysalis welcomes these individuals because we have seen countless examples of individuals who have never been allowed to go shopping get to the point where they can go shopping every week. Behavior change is rarely instantaneous, but our team takes the time to lay the foundation and then add progress step by step. We know that overcoming a problematic behavior opens a large number of adjacent possibilities in their life.
Behavior Analysts conduct assessments to understand better why the behavior is occurring. (i.e., what function the behavior they engage in is providing). Typically behavior occurs for one of four reasons:
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Escape: Something happens in the environment that signals an unwanted activity is about to occur. To get out of participation, individuals engage in behavior that lets them escape the situation. For instance, an individual may realize it is time to shower, so they engage in conduct that has helped them get out of showering in the past.
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Sensory Stimulation: A person engages in activities that stimulate their body in a way that makes them want to repeat that action. This could be spinning, picking,
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Access to Attention: The person wants attention or social interaction, so they engage in whatever behavior has helped them gain that access in the past.
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Access to Tangibles: They want access to a specific object, food, or activity. An individual may have found that pinching, hitting, or screaming is the best way to keep or get access.
Once the Behavior Analyst understands why the Behavior is occurring, they develop plans to teach new ways to communicate their needs so the problem behavior can be avoided. This new behavior is called a replacement behavior. When the new replacement behavior is engaged, the staff positively reinforces that behavior until it becomes the preferred behavior to get the desired outcome. This positive reinforcement serves a dual role; it helps anchor acceptable behavior and builds pride.
Problem behavior is just the tip of the iceberg. Trained Behavior analysts utilize curriculums developed to help people with an intellectual disability add communicative and relational skills to their repertoire. These skills allow them to interpret and interact with life. Understanding the world around them is a powerful way to achieve a sense of connection and belonging. It opens up many adjacent possibilities.
Our Behavior Analysts are bright and talented people. They utilize each other's skills to develop best practices. Twice a year, they meet to learn about new research, new assessments, to curriculum to help people. The energy and good that come out of those conferences are inspiring!
FREEDOM TO SET, PURSUE, AND ACHIEVING PERSONAL GOALS
Habilitation and Personal Goals
Setting and achieving goals is a powerful way to receive recognition and build self-esteem. Habilitation goals are also an excellent way to increase an individual's freedom and independence. Chrysalis' role is to support the individuals to live their best life. The individual and their family let us know their goals and desires in life, and we work to make that happen. Goals vary by person and but are often focused on becoming more independent. Examples of goals may include:
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Planning their weekly activities.
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Learning to access community transportation.
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Doing laundry.
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Tying shoes.
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Making a recipe.
The team tracks the objectives daily and submits their reporting to Fusion. We generate a monthly report so you can see any progress. When the individual makes progress, we set new goals with the individual and their team. We send out Progress Reports each month to the person's family and state coordinators monthly.
Overcoming Challenging Behaviors and Mastering New Life Skills
Vocational and Day Services
Chrysalis Day Service supports community-based services (CBS) designed to enable individuals to enrich their lives and enjoy full community integration. This is accomplished by providing opportunities for individualized development, enhancing, and maintaining competency in personal, social, vocational, and community-related activities. Success in the Chrysalis Day Services is achieved by focusing on personalized goals and providing community exposure and involvement, which are essential to learning what is possible in life. Community-based settings empower clients to learn through social interaction and community feedback while experiencing the conditions and circumstances of complete social integration and informed choice.
Chrysalis Employment:
Chrysalis Employment is devoted to serving others, as we advocate for meaningful vocational opportunities for people with disabilities. We constantly seek to create value in our communities for employers and employment candidates alike. We are changing the clients' lives through meaningful employment opportunities and succeed by changing society’s perceptions and expectations . We teach accountability, responsibility, employment skills, and independence to ensure that employees exceed employer expectations and live to create value in their lives and communities. This is accomplished by carving out pathways of success and working closely with community partners like Vocational Rehabilitation to identify client strengths, preferences, and the skills needed to work in competitor work in competitive and integrated settings successfully met opportunities in the community enrich the clients' lives and enhance the choices available for the individual. Obtaining independence through the addition of resources, development of relationships, contributions to society, and independence in making life choices are paramount to the success of these services and lie at the heart of all that we do.
YOU ARE A CRITICAL PIECE TO ACHIEVING STABILITY AND HAPPINESS
Family Involvement
At Chrysalis we encourage and welcome family involvement. We know that your relationship is critical. Chrysalis works with families to schedule home visits, attend family vacations, and communicate with the individual at any time. As a family member, we encourage you to participate in the person's team meetings to support them in their personal goal setting. Each month Chrysalis will send you a full packet with a summary of all medical appointments, prescriptions, monthly progress reports, behavior progress notes, and financial statements detailing all income and expenses for the previous month. We welcome and encourage your involvement!
YOU ARE A CRITICAL PIECE TO ACHIEVING STABILITY AND HAPPINESS
Activities with House Mates and Others
Life becomes meaningful when it is filled with memories. Meaningful memories create a sense of belonging for both the individuals and the people supporting them. Each month the house team meets in a "Memories Meeting" to schedule and plan meaningful activities that are likely to make memories. The individual's likes and desires are our first consideration. Staff with diverse backgrounds, hobbies, and interests create rich opportunities for individuals to explore new hobbies and activities.
The below video is an example of how a team can rally around an individual's interests to make a meaningful memory for everyone involved.
McLain Presents Peter Pan Smee Becomes a Lost Boy
SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICAID & FOOD STAMPS MADE SIMPLE
The Subsidy and Rep Payee Department
The foundation of stability is laid with Social Security, Medicaid, Food Stamps and other subsidies like housing subsidies. Chrysalis' has become experts at Social Security, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Housing Subsidies. We have also developed proprietary software that automagically allows us to track paystubs, over asset limits, utilities, production of full financial reporting, and many more important functions. Our team will track and carry out all requirements to get and keep individuals eligible for Social Security, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Housing, and other subsidies. We also can become Representative Payee and streamline budgeting, automatic bill pay and personal spending money. Some of the services we provide include
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Social Security, Medicaid and Food Stamp Initial Enrollment
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Social Security Annual Reviews
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Medicaid Annual Reviews
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Food Stamp Annual Reviews
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Housing Subsidy Applications and Renewals
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Pay Stab Tracking and Reporting
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Asset tracking and reporting
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Representative Payee Services
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Automatic Bill Pay for Rents, Utilities, and Medical Bills.
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Each Individual receives their own debit card for groceries, eating out, personal needs, and activities.
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Monthly financial report of all assets reported to family and state workers detailing all income and expenses.
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Financial oversight and budgeting tools.
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ABLE Account set up and assistance with administration.
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Special Needs Trust Liaisons