Congratulations to Tammy Hodge, a Moore Center DSP who was recently awarded “DSP of the Year” for New Hampshire from ANCOR. ANCOR, which stands for American Network of Community Options and Resources, is a national human services advocacy organization.

Tammy’s award is no small achievement, and is reflective of her commitment to her clients. She works for the Moore Center Independent Living program, which supports clients as they live on their own in the community.

“This is such an honor,” Tammy says. “I was so excited to receive it. It’s great this industry is given national recognition.”

Hello Direct Support Professional,

    One of our most rewarding challenges as  direct care providers involves empowerment.  Helping the people we support take control over different aspects of their lives helps them feel good about themselves and encourages in them a can-do spirit as their confidence grows with each accomplishment.  In this article I would like to share with you a couple of tips on things I have found that have helped the person I work with gain control over his audio and video environment. 

     The first involves cabinet bumpers, those little round pieces of soft plastic with a sticky side that you attach to cabinet doors to keep them from slamming.  If you are like me you have probably been in the habit of controlling the car radio when you do transportation for people without asking yourself if it is really fair to impose your music on the person you give a ride to.  I finally figured out that if I taught my rider how to turn the radio on and off he would let me know if he even wanted to listen to the radio.  At first he had a lot of trouble differentiating between the power and the tuning knob so I stuck a cabinet bumper on the power knob and all of a sudden with the different look and feel of the knobs we had success.  Now if I ask him if he wants to listen to the car radio he will either pridefully turn it on himself or he will say “no” with the satisfaction of knowing the choice is his. 

My friend also likes to watch TV but our standard issue remote control was much too complicated for him (and truth be told, myself) to master.  Luckily I was able to find the world’s easiest remote control for only $18.  Called the TEK PAL, this remote has large buttons for power, muting, channel up and down, and volume up and down and none of the other clutter.  With the addition of a felt cabinet bumper for a visual and tactile emphasis my friend quickly learned the power button and his delight in being able to control the power is contagious.  He can now go into the TV room by himself and turn it on without waiting for someone to help him.  The TEK PAL can be found in catalogs such as Full of Life and at www.BigButtonRemotes.com. 

     That’s it from me for now.  I encourage you to share your discoveries.

                                                                                                             Jeff LeClair

                                                                                                             DSP/Home Provider

We are pleased to announce that for the third year in a row T.D. Banknorth is partnering with Moore Center Services to offer a statewide scholarship for Direct Support Staff to enroll in the online College of Direct Support (CDS) curriculum!

As a high-quality instructional program, the College of Direct Support is based on a careful analysis of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of Direct Support Professionals in their daily work. The CDS helps users understand and apply these important competencies and ethical practices through timely, innovative, engaging, and interesting web-based training.

Eighteen scholarship slots are available. Each slot will be filled by a Direct Support Staff working for an Area Agency or Vendor Agency in New Hampshire. Managers and directors are asked to identify a Direct Support Professional from your respective organization that would benefit from the curriculum.

In addition to funding the coursework, the grant provides a further incentive for Direct Support Staff to complete the College of Direct Support on their own time: they will be eligible for a completion stipend of $400! Don’t miss out – follow the application instructions below:

Application Instructions

The Direct Support Staff should complete the application with his/her immediate supervisor. Both staff and supervisor must sign and submit the application to Scott Trudo at Moore Center Services no later than May 15, 2009. After this date no more applications will be accepted.

Download the application here (PDF), fill it out and send it to:

Check out the video here.

Click here to read it! (PDF)