2016 OVRS Staff Retreat

The first annual OVRS Staff Retreat took place on May 27th and was held at the Grove Retreat Center. Over 70 OVRS employees from DSP’s to administrative staff participated in working sessions. The theme of this retreat is, “Integration, Team Process and Person Centered Thinking”.   The morning was filled with brainstorming sessions on how OVRS can rethink the way we approach the areas of Food Availability, Bedroom Door Locks, Visitors and creating Integrated Community Settings. All of these areas are newly defined in Rule by the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities as directed by the federal government.  We are mandated by the state to change our practices in regards to these areas and OVRS sought out employees help to establish new policies and practices so to be in compliance.

Eric Metzger from the Hamilton County Board was our keynote speaker during lunch. Eric reinforced that our system is in the midst of major change and gave us clear guidelines to follow as we work in a more cooperative way so to meet these challenges.  In the afternoon we heard reports from the Facilities Management Team, Business Services/Client Funds Team, Internal QA Specialist, Professional Development and the HR Team.

Many great ideas were generated by the OVRS staff on ways we can impact the future of DD Services at OVRS.  Our task now is to put these great ideas into action.

We currently have Five ongoing internal committees, coordinated by Jeff Krieger, Program Director and chaired by our Program Coordinators.  These committees continue to help OVRS move forward on some very important program issues by seeking very important input from our employees:

Medication Task Force Committee – Chaired by Kourtney Anderson, Program Coordinator

Hiring Committee – Chaired by Tammy Wyatt, Program Coordinator

Universal Forms Committee – Chaired by Julie Martinez, Program Coordinator

Health & Safety Committee – Sara Gatewood, Program Coordinator

On Call Committee – Kat Bradford, Program Coordinator

I want to personally thank all of the OVRS staff for thinking out of the box and being patient with us as we create a framework for all of us to meet the challenging changes in our system.  Change is very difficult I understand and one could perceive that “things” are moving too fast or in an unknown direction, but with each of your open minds and hearts, we can create a wonderful community for the people we support.  I know its hard to understand but I didn’t create these changes, I have the responsibility to make sure we adapt them and make OVRS better for it.  I need all of you to assist me as this isn’t about me or you, it’s about the people we support and OUR agency.  Have I made mistakes along the way, absolutely and may make a few more, but together we can walk the path to reach our goal.  The goal is not just meeting the minimum requirements, but going above and beyond.  We owe that to all people with disabilities, our community, our system and ourselves.  Thanks for everything you do, everyday.   Creating the framework is the easy part, the hard part comes with filling in the details and execution, that’s where all of you come in.

Let’s be bigger than ourselves.

Jamie

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