Creating Consistent Training and Better Client Outcomes With Relias

The mission of Allen-Ayuk Behavioral Health Center is to promote growth and create an understanding through an individualized approach with a focus on self-advocacy, empowerment, and strengthening supports. The organization strives to help families grow, develop, and stabilize through education and wellness. Allen-Ayuk uses a person-centered, recovery-based approach to provide comprehensive care and wrap-around support for individuals and families.

With three main offices and service providers spread out across Maryland, finding consistency in training proved challenging. To meet the training needs of its staff and further its mission of providing person-centered care to clients, Allen-Ayuk partnered with Relias.

Maintaining Compliance and Accreditation

When Allen-Ayuk first implemented Relias, one of its biggest needs was the ability to remain in compliance with the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) accreditation standards. To maintain CARF accreditation, organizations must show improvement in areas that CARF has marked as needing attention during past accreditations. To that end, Allen-Ayuk wanted a platform that offered its staff an easier way to take courses, receive notifications of training deadlines, and more.

With staff located across the entire state, finding a way to provide consistent, timely training proved difficult. To meet this need, Allen-Ayuk turned to Relias. Through the Relias Platform, Allen-Ayuk has provided staff with online training options. These training modules allow staff members to complete their training whenever and wherever, providing a more convenient training process. With Relias, Allen-Ayuk has proven able to offer more consistent training, which has made compliance and upskilling staff easier.

“It’s a guarantee that Relias is accepted for CARF. That’s where Relias is a lifesaver.”
– Frances Figueroa, Director of the Outpatient Mental Health Clinic

Not only did Allen-Ayuk find a platform that makes training easier, but the extensive library of Relias courses was also a perfect match for its needs. “It’s a guarantee that Relias is accepted for CARF,” Frances Figueroa, Director of the Outpatient Mental Health Clinic said. “That’s where Relias is a lifesaver.”

Improving Strengths-Based Care

Strength-based care has been a pillar in Allen-Ayuk’s philosophy for a long time. As such, the organization consistently trains staff on how to best offer these types of supports. With the help of Relias, Allen-Ayuk has increased the level of strength-based care it offers to its clients, while maintaining a higher training standard for its staff.

Since becoming a client, Allen-Ayuk has been able to provide staff members with “the skills that help them to do their job and support the clients to focus on their areas of strength, to help the client see it, and to use the right words to help the client have progress,” Patrice Edgley, MA, CPRP, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program Director said.

Edgley and Figueroa also reported that a number of courses in the Relias library have helped their staff learn how to determine the common struggles that clients have and how to use better, more supportive language to help clients understand their own strengths.

With this fresh approach, Allen-Ayuk has proven able to deliver more effective care and create better outcomes for its clients. Relias has been “very, very helpful for going in and being able to see some common issues that clients have and then showing how you can support them or reframe the issues,” Edgley said.

Promoting Learning and Growth With Relias

As shown by its ability to promote and maintain better strength-based care, Allen-Ayuk and its staff are always looking to learn and grow for the benefit of clients. The Relias Platform has helped create a culture of learning at the organization, where staff members enjoy taking courses to develop their skills.

“Through Relias, there’s training that will support what that person needs in order to get them to be able to take the CPRP exam.”
– Frances Figueroa, Director of the Outpatient Mental Health Clinic

One great example of this is the process for Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP) certification. Any staff member, regardless of their level of education, can enroll in the courses for this certification. Using Relias, Allen-Ayuk measures the skills of the staff members seeking CPRP certification and then tailors the training program to them based on the results. “Through Relias, there’s training that will support what that person needs in order to get them to be able to take the CPRP exam,” Figueroa said.

Looking forward, Allen-Ayuk will use Relias to expand its training programs, deepening its organizational commitment to learning. This includes creating new programs for staff, continuing to improve its recertification processes, and engaging more staff in the learning process through micro-learning modules.

“That’s Relias for us; it’s maintaining what we have and growing.”