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Success Story

Preparation for CARF Accreditation Made Easier with Relias

Interview with Tina Thomas, Employee Development Coordinator at Archway Station, Inc.

 

Background

Archway Station, Inc. is a private nonprofit corporation operating in Maryland. They provide services to adults recovering from serious mental illness and living with developmental disabilities as well as children overcoming serious and persistent emotional and/or behavioral conditions. Services include residential, supported housing, wellness and recovery, and targeted case management. Archway Station’s goal is to provide psychiatric rehabilitation services to help facilitate people served living successfully in the community.

Challenge

Archway Station has been a longtime Relias Learning client, using the system to manage and track all staff training for both orientation and ongoing annual requirements. Serving adults and children with mental health issues, development disabilities and substance use has meant the content breadth and variety of topics helps keep staff current in their areas. Recently they needed to seek CARF accreditation to meet Maryland state licensing requirements and the entire process, started a few years earlier, has been made easier with the use of Relias.

Solution

The process of preparing for CARF accreditation involved tightening up current process, shifting deadlines, improving completion rates and on-time completions and changing their schedule from quarterly to monthly trainings. The ability to manage and report on live and online training, as well as non-training requirements like certifications, has made the learning management system (RLMS) an invaluable tool for them. “The CARF accreditation process meant we had to make adjustments to how we manage staff training,” comments Tina Thomas, Employee Development Coordinator. “Already using Relias and the flexibility of the system made that process much easier for us.”
“Relias is such an important training tool! The competency-based training allows us to track whether employees are learning and retaining information on topics in which they have been trained. If there are deficiencies, we can quickly identify them and correct them.”

Archway Station has also been completing a thorough review of all policies, updating and operationalizing them as needed. For example, an auditor pointed out that their management of 401(k) info to employees was lacking details about employees expressing interest; they were tracking receipt of information, not employee response. They added a questionnaire to their informational course in the RLMS and discovered that about 25% of staff don’t participate but want to, and they have corrected that. With their CARF accreditation survey looming, they have quickly and easily updated their new hire and/or annual training plans by adding topics such as rights of people providing and using services, anti-stigma and advocating for people using services, financial management and training, and cultural diversity, just to name a few.

 

Results

  • Online content reiterates and solidifies what was learned in orientation.
  • Created online training for staff on CARF accreditation proses to help with cultural and attitude change, helping encourage investment in the process.
  • Hundreds of courses available to staff to expand knowledge of current issues for personal growth and development

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