This training will save lives

We are excited to announce that the Staff Learning Module “The Fatal Five” is now live on the Open Future site. If support staff can understand the early warning signs of the Fatal Five – they can save lives. Watch this trailer to learn more:

This module focuses on the five most common preventable causes of death for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: aspiration, constipation, dehydration, seizures, and sepsis. The module emphasizes the importance of understanding an individual’s baseline, or their typical behavior when healthy, to recognize subtle changes that could indicate a developing health problem. By recognizing these changes and advocating with and for people, support staff can ensure early intervention prevents these manageable conditions from escalating into life-threatening situations.

On completion of this module your staff will be able to:

  • Explain the five preventable conditions that pose the most significant risks to the people you support.

  • Understand the importance of knowing baselines and how changes from baseline often signal underlying health issues, for which early detection can prevent conditions from worsening.

  • Describe the key causes, signs, and symptoms of the Fatal Five and how they can be recognized, monitored, and prevented, therefore significantly improving the health and outcomes of people supported.

  • Provide effective communication and advocacy bridging communication gaps between people supported and healthcare professionals to ensure medical concerns are properly understood and promptly addressed.

Want to see how Open Future Learning can work for your team? Schedule a Zoom demo of our site and then have 24 seats to our site for one month. No obligation. No contract of use. No cost. Click here to schedule your demo.

P.S. Open Future is now SCORM compliant. Use our courses on any LMS!

He Does Not Want to Bathe

In this video Lynne Seagle tells a story that dates back to the 1980’s about a man who would not bathe. The real story here is about motivation and meeting people where they are at. This is a must watch:

Collaborating with Lynne we have added 17 videos just like this one to our Videos On Demand player. Videos On Demand is a tool to help groups of people to start conversations and explore how they support people.

As well as videos we have hundreds of courses. Learn more about all of our modules here

Want to see how Open Future Learning can work for your team? Take a Zoom demo of our site and then have 24 seats to our site for one month. No obligation. No contract of use. No cost. Click here to schedule your demo.

Lynne Seagle is a transformative leader and visionary in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities who has dedicated her life to reshaping how society views and supports people.

In the mid 1980s, Lynne led the Hope House Foundation organization through groundbreaking changes to move the agency from providing support to people in group homes to what they stated was their housing preference. The majority of people arrived at Hope House from state-run institutions. When asked how they would prefer to live, the majority indicated that they preferred their own apartments – an unheard concept at the time.

“Finding out people didn’t want to live in group homes started with a survey. The survey asked the question, ‘Does everyone like where they are living?’ Everyone said yes. It was odd to ask 120 some people a personal question and get the same answer. We then re-worded the question to, ‘How do you want to live?’. And, the flood gates opened. People answered 1 of 3 ways, from most dominant to least; 1) I want a home of my own, 2) people wanted a job (most people were in day programs or workshops), 3) friendship and romance.”

Motivated by these passionately stated preferences, Seagle began what would become decades-long leadership on inclusivity and person-centered services.

Christian’s Story

Christian is a role model to this mother and her child:

This story is an excerpt from our two new Mini Modules that use individual stories to demonstrate how customized employment can help people to find paid work.

The first new module shares Nathaniel’s story and looks in detail at how the “discovery” process was implemented. The second module shares Christian’s story and we see how his supporters focused on “job development”.

Learn more about all of our modules here.

Want to see how Open Future Learning can work for your team? Take a Zoom demo of our site and then have 24 seats to our site for one month. No obligation. No contract of use. No cost. Click here to schedule your demo.