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!
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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.
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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
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And what do we charge for each of these services? Absolutely nothing. All services are included with 24 Hour Shared Home Services. Watch our video to meet our team and learn more.
The Subsidy Department: An Overview
MEDICAL CARE AND MEDICATION ADHERENCE
The Medical Department and Pharmacy
Area Medical Team
Health and safety for the people we serve is a must. Each Chrysalis office has a medical team consisting of a Medical Coordinator, Medical Assistants, Medical Drivers, and in most cases Nurses. The medical team schedules annual medical appointments, dental appointments, OBGYN visits, as needed appointments, and follow up visits. The medical department is also a liaison with the pharmacy. The medical team fills out Medical Appointment sheets before each visit so the doctor can communicate any findings, prescription changes, or medical orders. Every appointment is then recorded in Fusion, Chrysalis' proprietary software, as a permanent searchable record. The medical team is a caring group of individuals dedicated to the health of the people we serve.
The Chrysalis Provo Medical Team
Meridian Meds Pharmacy
Chrysalis is always looking for the adjacent possible to improve our quality of care. In 2012 Chrysalis founded a sister company called Meridian Meds LLC to drastically improve the quality of pharmacy care for people with intellectual disabilities. Meridian Meds invested in special robotics to package medications in strip packs. Each packet is a separate dose for a specific person, date, and time. Meridian Meds uses a unique robot to photograph and digitally analyze each packet to ensure the correct pills are in the packet. The robot matches each drug according to shape, size, color, and quantity and compares it to the order. Once everything is perfect, a pharmacist does a final quality check on all the medications.
We hire skilled pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Our focus is on quality care. We know that every penny spent on medications is a missed recreational activity so we have decreased prices while simultaneously increasing quality. We are relentless in our pursuit of excellence and have built incredible processes to ensure quality. Each person has a pharmacist conduct a medical review each month comparing last months prescriptions to this month's prescriptions. Any changes are investigated to ensure medications with no refills were removed at the doctors orders and not just because the refills ran out. Instead of single pharmacist checks we have robots, technicians, and multiple pharmacist checks along the way. We are proud of the care we provide our patients. Watch this video to get a better idea of what we mean by quality care.
Introduction to the Pharmacy
A PLACE TO CALL HOME
My Own Home in the Community
Chrysalis rents homes or apartments in the community and the individuals use their Social Security Income to pay their share of the rent. Chrysalis typically finds 3 to 4 bed homes whose rent falls within the HUD Fair Market value.
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Each Individual has their own room and privacy.
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Common areas are furnished with couches, televisions, kitchen tables and chairs, pots and pans, refrigerator and freezer, washer and dryer.
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Chrysalis oversees landscaping services.
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Chrysalis schedules and oversees repairs of the homes.
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Chrysalis applies for Housing Subsidies for the individual when possible.
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Utility bills are split between residents living in the home.
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The two videos below were recorded in Chrysalis homes to Highlight these House Managers and the individuals living in the home. In the video you can see some of the shared living areas, as well as the ability for individuals to decorate their own rooms as they want to. Chrysalis believes in finding nice homes in the community to provide a stable living environment.
Shared Homes Examples
Shared Homes Examples
Share Your Talents and Passions
House Manager: Rachel's Story
PREPARED FOR NATURAL DISASTERS
Emergency & Disaster Preparedness
Practicing Self Reliance to Increase Safety
Following Hurricane Katrina and the California wild fires the National Council on Disability issued a report stating that most government plans fail to consider the most vulnerable Americans in their emergency plans. The federal government issued a report titled "Effective Emergency Management: Making Improvements for Communities and People with Disabilities." This report stated that the exclusion of issues affecting the disabled from disaster planning is a long standing problem and that the details "have typically been limited to a few lines in an emergency plan, if they are mentioned at all." The report continues "Although some improvements in this area is evident, catastrophic events such as Hurricane Katrina and the California wildfires exposed the gaps that still exist in many emergency plans and preparedness efforts. . . These events reinforce the need for additional action to protect the lives of people with disabilities against the destructive nature of disasters."
Emergency planners and government officials are generally unfamiliar and unaware of the unique needs of individuals with developmental disabilities. A special report from the Special Needs Assessment for Katrina Evacuees found that many emergency shelter planners had little interaction with the disabled community before Hurricane Katrina.
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At Chrysalis we feel that the responsibility of preparedness starts with the person and with Chrysalis. History has shown that we can't expect emergency services to support our individuals in the beginning. We have implemented a detailed emergency response plan along with emergency supplies so each individual will have the best chance of survival until additional help can arrive.
Communication
In a disaster power and communication infrastructure is often damaged, which means there is no way to communicate. Most administrators now hold a HAM radio licenses to communicate with emergency response teams and each other. We realized though that communicating out of the state was more difficult.
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In 2019, Chrysalis purchased SPOT X satellite communicators for all administrators in the company so that we would always have a reliable method of communicating outside of the state when a disaster occurs. Since Chrysalis is located in multiple states the state not affected by the emergency can mobilize an emergency response to help Chrysalis residents.
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72 Hour Kits, Food Storage, Emergency Water Rations, and First Aid Kids
Each Chrysalis home is equipped with:
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72 Hour kits.
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Emergency food storage to feed the individuals and their staff.
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Additional emergency supplies like flash lights, outdoor cooking supplies, and natural gas shut off tools.
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Water rations in the home in the event that the water systems are shut off or compromised.
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First aid kits.
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Sleeping bags.
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An Emergency flip chart with instructions for each type of emergency.
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Preparation
Chrysalis also conducts semi annual emergency drills where we practice company wide emergency scenarios. This allows us to practice using our communication equipment so we will be proficient when a real emergency strikes. During our emergency simulations we practice following an emergency plan including responding to fake injuries and evacuating to a secondary location and leaving proper notes of where we evacuated to.
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We also practice monthly fire drills in each home to ensure we are proficient at getting everyone out of the house and to a safe meeting location.