Imagine That...November 2021
In Loving Memory of Dean Wilson and Dana Hackett
Help support Imagine!
Hayley, Dressing for Halloween. With unidentified Relic.
We Remember Dean
Damien and Stephanie
Cindy, Jessica and Briana
Imagine 2021 Halloween Party
Jordon, Simone and The Gang
What roams
Ryan and a Heathersaurus
Charlie and Sidney
Thanksgiving Edition Again
purple-flower-tree.jpg

Dear Imagine friends and family,


This will be a pretty eventful newsletter this month. In this column, we hope everyone will note some good news about a new member of the Administrative Team, bad news about some very important flaws in our performance around medications and a more plaintive than usual kick-off to our holiday fundraising campaign. All of these will be explained below at a newsletter depth of information and I am available, as always, to provide detail to the personal communication level. You can write me here.

Two truths are important for you to know. The first is that Imagine remains as much as ever a resilient, thoughtful and person-centered organization, staffed with committed individuals who strive to fulfill our mission and serve the individuals we've been graced to have in our care. The second is that right now we are also a very stressed organization. We have been understaffed for a while now against the challenges of administering excellent services during a pandemic. Our direct care team has been short-staffed requiring many of our caregivers to work beyond their preferences and natural energy levels for a long time. Financially, we have spent enough of our reserves during the pandemic that we need to be very prudent. The third issue makes solving the first two especially difficult.

In October, we did identify several cases where our services were not up to our standards. In particular, there have been three cases in which errors around medications or their documentation were allowed to occur. Below in his column, Charlie describes our response. Here, in mine, I want to apologize. Up-to-date verification and documentation of the proper medications are a core responsibility that we acknowledge, train for and invest in meeting. The acceptable frequency of error is never and those we serve have the right to expect us to stay within a breath of that standard. I am sorry we did not meet that expectation and I promise a keen focus on improvement. If you, someone you serve, or someone you are a conservator for were involved in a medication error, you have already been informed.

Fortunately, I can announce progress in October on both administrative and direct care hiring. The prospect of substantal and adequate relief for our financial concerns, enough to start refilling reserves and make improvements in direct care compensation, are promised in the state budget and expected to bring relief around July. Between now and then you have our commitment to do our best for those we serve, our coworkers and the rest of our family and community.

As an example of the progress we are making, I'm very grateful to announce that Norma Villarón has joined our family as our new Administrative Assistant. Depending on your role in the Imagine family, Norma will help you as a friendly greeting during regular office hours, less chance that we'll run low on supplies you need, a measurably less grumpy Executive Director and, starting next month, a return of the higher quality newsletter from recent days of yore. At least one board member will be very happy to have minutes kept by staff again, too. Next time you are in the office, please introduce yourself and enjoy your new friend. If Norma had started a week earlier, her photo would be just below this sentence.

I want to remind everyone who works at Imagine that the end of this month is the last day anyone can work at Imagine without (a) having completed COVID-19 vaccination or (b) providing a waiver signed by a medical professional or religious authority and agreeing to weekly testing. If you were fully vaccinated at Imagine clinics or have already provided proof of vaccination, thank you. If not, you have 30 days to comply, or we will not be able to employ you without a waiver and weekly testing.

We are kicking off our Holiday Fundraising Campaign from November through January. For the reasons above, we are hopeful that this year people will support us as they are able and seek support from friends and family who may be interested and in a position to help. Our goal this year is $50,000, about double our best campaign ever. Our purpose is to keep our focus on improving everything that needs to get better and everything that's working wonderfully for the 8 months between now and when we expect sustaining improvements in our regional center funding. Our letters will go out this week, with email and a web page to follow during November. If you perfer, you can get ahead of the wooing and just elope.

Further down, this month's newsletter includes the following:

The latest edition of "The Service Sector," in which Charlie discusses steps we are taking to insure we live up to our standards in medical information and documentation.

In our Human Resources column this month, Patty wants you to relax, take a deep breath and, if you feel like doing yourself even more good, consider a flu shot. She'll give one of you money if you do.

Susan Douglass, a parent and board member, in her monthly column invites you to a zoom meeting November 16th to be edified even more by me. She also promotes our fundraiser more effectively than I ever do.

Our usual stuff in the columns around advocacy, self-determination, transparency and the Imagine Endowment.

As ever, if you have any questions, feedback or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can write me here. I look forward to hearing from you.

Gratefully yours,

Doug
The Imagine Endowment
We have started an endowment to support Imagine's future. Beginning next year, Imagine will receive regular payments of the returns from these funds. Initially, we expect the impact to be small but as the endowment grows, it holds the promise of helping Imagine help others through hard times to come.

If you are considering a gift to the endowment, either right now or as part of a giving plan or bequest, we have information available here. And thank you.

To make direct contributions please make checks payable to; The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County.  Designate the "Imagine Supported Living Services Fund". Mail to;   Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, 7807 Soquel Dr., Aptos, Ca.  95003.


-Submitted by Doug
The Service Sector
Greeting Imagine Family, 

               Firstly, thank you to everyone that came out to our Halloween event on Friday. It was so great to connect again like we used to, and it gave us a brief glimpse of the things we can look forward to in 2022 (fingers crossed).

               The staffing crisis has continued to make things very challenging for a lot of our teams here at Imagine. November will bring even more challenges as we enter the Governor’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline. Staffing shortages can make agencies weaker in many ways so it is vital we keep our focus on procedural issues during this time. One area we have identified a need for more training is how we support our consumers with medications. Medications errors do happen occasionally as human error can sneak up on the best of us and we report any that are made to the regional center, client and any conservator. This month we encountered more than usual which has triggered us to focus on clear expectations for Facilitators and the staff at each house. Using the consumers medication log and the prescription sticker on each bottle or bubble pack, the staff should be checking the following rights:

  1. Right name of consumer
  2. Right medication i.e. the name of the medication
  3. Right dose
  4. Right time
  5. Right route i.e. oral, topical, sublingual, suppository etc. 
  6. Right documentation i.e. signing that the medication has been taken

All new staff are to be trained thoroughly on this system and existing staff need to be conscious to maintain using this system even when they’ve been supporting a consumer for years and there have been little to no medication changes. Facilitators are expected to monitor, train and ensure that the information on which the 6 rights are based are presented correctly at all times. During all house meetings in November this with be reviewed with each team and each staff member. As always, if any imagine employee, parent or stakeholder would like to discuss our medication policies I’m happy to schedule time to chat. 

That’s all from me for now!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (Said from a person from England who is confused what Thanksgiving is).

Charlie Miller 
Director of Services.
Director of Services 
Imagine Supported Living Services
9065 Soquel Drive
Aptos, CA 95003
Office: (831) 464-8355 ext. 103
Mobile: (831) 428-1731
HR Corner
Hello all, 

I hope everyone is safe and well. It seems that everyone I speak with lately has expressed feeling overly tired or stressed out. With the holiday season around the corner, and the continued stress around the COVID-19 pandemic,  it's to be expected that our emotions are be running high. One more thing to keep in mind is that the flu season is around the corner. 

Studies show that stress can suppress your immune system making it easier for you to contract the flu. Though the flu might seem like the least of our worries after almost 2 years of COVID-19 concerns, the flu is nothing to sneeze at. Thousands of people become hospitalized every year with the flu. On top of that, Flu symptoms are very similar to those experienced by people that have contracted COVID-19. At Imagine, we are still following the protocol of asking all employees to monitor their symptoms daily and to contact us immediately if they experience COVID-19 related symptoms. Preventing the flu with a vaccine is the easiest way to prevent quarantine time for symptoms that might mimic COVID-19. 

Kaiser members can get the a free flu shot in multiple locations in Santa Cruz County. If you are not a Kaiser member, ask your Primary Care Physician about a flu shot. Additionally, a lot of pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens will also have shots available for little cost to no cost. We urge you to consider the flu shot for your safety and that of your clients and coworkers. 

With this, Imagine is announcing a $150 gift card raffle! To enter the raffle, an employee must submit proof that you have received a flu vaccine. 

We will be drawing the name of the winner at our next All Staff Meeting on Wednesday November 17th. Make sure you have submitted your proof of vaccine to me by Monday November 15th. 

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns or if you would like help finding a location that provides free or low-cost flu vaccines. 

Here is a friendly reminder that every employee at Imagine must be vaccinated against COVID-19, by November 30, 2021 in order to continue working with us. Please remember to send me your vaccine card via email at patty@imaginesls.org. 

As always, I am here to answer any questions or concerns you may have. 

In good health,

Patty Lopez 
HR Manager 
Imagine Supported Living Services 
831-464-8355 ext. 112
Cell: (831) 325-7760

Self-Determination
Self-Determination is now available for any regional center client who chooses it. That's a wonderful change to what has been, until now, a very challenging but rewarding way of helping a select few. Whoever wants it was always the ideal constituency for this program. Although Imagine does not provide Independent Facilitation services, several of our employees have started side businesses facilitating person-centered plans and support for people in self-determination. If you would like to know more about self-determination, or want help finding an Independent Facilitator, please don't hesitate to contact me. Also, if you are a service provider interested in or worried about serving people through self-determination, I urge you to speak with me.

This month, the Independent Facilitator Roundtable will be this coming Wednesday, November 3 at 11AM. The Zoom link is right here. I'm pretty sure. If it doesn't work, email me in a hurry.

-Submitted by Doug
Community Connections
Family Zoom Gathering 
Tuesday November 16th at 4pm 
Join Doug and company for the “Imagine State of the Union” discussion. 
A Zoom invite will be sent out the week before.  

To Imagine Family and Friends,

I have learned a lot about the Imagine culture as I’ve observed the organization responding to the challenges posed by the pandemic. The overarching goals, through it all, have been to keep everyone safe and to be transparent. I think those goals have been admirably met but the costs of that effort are becoming more apparent and more acute as the pandemic drags on. 

Imagine’s extra efforts responding to the pandemic have included: investigating, planning, and follow-up on cases and exposures in a thorough and methodical fashion; the development, roll out, ongoing evolution, and cross agency sharing of protocols; hosting the vaccine clinics; extensive staff education and keeping stakeholders updated and informed. THAT’S a lot of additional work that the dedicated staff at Imagine has absorbed and the cumulative effort has, sadly but necessarily, significantly diverted energy and funds away from some of the usual business building activities. 

A significant area of sacrifice has been in Imagine’s traditional fundraising efforts, which have been drastically interrupted by the limitations of the pandemic and administrative capacity. The 2020 film festival at the Boardwalk drive-in was our last big in person (or in car) event. Pursuing grants is very time intensive with no guarantee of return so our fundraising efforts have been focused on the yearend efforts and staff appreciation. Last year, in a successful effort to boost contributions to the staff appreciation fund, $15K was redirected from the general fund for donation matching. This provided an opportunity to acknowledge the extra effort given and sacrifices made by direct care staff through that first difficult year of the pandemic.  

Imagine leadership has been reserved through the pandemic about asking for financial support from families with the awareness that many families are facing hardships of their own. But this year we are asking, with urgency, for even more generosity in your participation in our yearend fundraising efforts. Also, please consider multiplying our success by sharing this giving opportunity within your own community. Imagine will be providing some materials that will make that outreach easy to do. As Imagine struggles under the weight of staffing shortages, the cumulative costs of the pandemic, and an absence of some of our most fruitful fundraising endeavors we need your help, more than ever before, to continue providing the highest quality of client care that our reputation has been built on. Thank you for your support!

Susan Douglass, Imagine parent, BOD member   
susancruzan50@gmail.com     831-818-2501

Transparency At Imagine
Our next board meeting will be held December 15, at 11:00. Write to Norma if you'd like to attend. Imagine's finances did not immediately rebound following the end of the riskiest part of the pandemic and we'll discussing why and how to repair the trouble.

We are still recruiting board members. We are working to diversify the board and to add a GAAP-trained treasurer. An attorney wouldn't be bad either.

-Submitted by Doug
Advocacy Corner
As I wrote in last month's newsletter (and remains true today:) There are a few open policy issues that we want our community aware of. The state has applied to the federal government, and will likely get approval for, signing and retention bonuses for direct care staff working for IHSS and in similar positions. As of right now, it does not appear that regional center vendor employees will be included. But it is also not at all clear that good advocacy around this can't lead to direct care staff being included. Imagine management will be doing all we can. If you are not used to doing advocacy with the State, it would be an easy step to call or write your local State Assemblymember and State Senator and ask that you would like I/DD direct care employees to be included in the $500 signing and retention bonuses outlined in the "state's HCBS spending plan."

As ever, Imagine's advocacy gets split between management's work with the California Disability Community Action Network (CDCAN) and whatever you all choose to do. Consider a conversation with a legislator. If you would like to receive CDCAN updates, write to Marty Omoto, which you can do by clicking here.

-Submitted by Doug
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Staff and Client Birthdays

Hayley!
Abra!
Patrick!
Tim!
Bruce 
Augustin 
Erik 
Michael 
Jose 
Vanessa 
Marco 
Daisy R 
Cynthia 
Jennifer 
Amanda 
Stephanie 
Elizabeth 
Vanessa 
Pauline 
Doug 


Staff Anniversaries

Rosie L. 16 years!!!
John B. 9 years!!
Tanya 7 years!!
Joanna 6 years!!
Peggy 6 Years!!
Kennon Cahill 4 years
Jai Singh 3 years
Miriam 3 years
Isaac Tuttle 3 years
Alex Tuttle 3 years
Cat Wilson 3 years
Sabrina C 2 years
Melissa 2 years
Janet 2 years
Randall 2 years
Imagine Supported Living Services
9065 Soquel Drive
Aptos, Ca 95003
Please remember to shop at 
and choose Imagine as the charitable organization to receive a donation of 0.5% of each purchase!