Breaking Down Barriers with ConnectAbility of MN – Podcast

Jason Dorow
Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Champions of Homecare Podcast with David Hancox I'm Jason Dorow. And how are you doing today, David,

David Hancox
You know grandma used to say, if I was any better, I'd feel guilty. So I'm doing really, really well today. The summer is starting off very nicely, and I hope the same is for you.

Jason Dorow
Yeah, it's been an awesome start to summer here in Minnesota.

David Hancox
Good, good. I'm so glad. And you know, for our listeners, we have another great conversation lined up today. This time it's with one of Accra, amazing community partners, connectability of Minnesota, they do fantastic services, provide wonderful opportunities and resources for individuals with disabilities and their families. So why don't we just get right to it and welcome connectability success. Executive Director, Sherry Wagner, Sherry, how are you doing today? I'm

Sheri Wegner
wonderful. Thank you so much for this opportunity. It's wonderful to get connected with Acra.

David Hancox
It's wonderful to reconnect with you, because I know it's been we've known each other for several years, but haven't seen you for a while, and in that time that we have not seen each other, you have grown connectability to amazing new levels and serving an incredible number of people every day, I think you shared with us that you're serving about 8000 individuals a day across the state of Minnesota, which is absolutely fantastic. You've got to be very, very proud of that. So as a way to kind of get started based on that, you know, jumping off of that number, tell us a little bit about connectability, its mission, what kind of services that you actually provide, and all that good information that I know our listeners will really benefit from hearing

Sheri Wegner
awesome well, it all truly stems from our mission statement. And our mission statement is that we partner, like with Accra, to create relationships with others, to coordinate physical access, communication and safety in Minnesota, and we do that primarily through the waivered services and fee for service. So the different services that we coordinate for people with disabilities or low income seniors that qualify for the waivered program include three different divisions for us. The first one is our chore services. And we have three departments, ongoing services, which would be lawn care, snow removal. We have one time services which would include things like deep cleaning, exterminations, hoarding clean outs. Sometimes we need dumpsters to just clean up an environment so that lawn services can happen. They can help with the packing for a move situation. And then we also do transitional services, which is the actual moving service, as well as the state has provided some funding for furniture and household supplies, and so we're able to do virtual shopping trips with clients, so they can pick out, for some of them, the first time ever in their life their own furniture, the essentials that they need for their home. And I'll never forget a woman who wanted a red couch, and we were able to get her a red couch, so she was over the moon with that, we also have our accessibility division, and that includes environmental assessments, so we can go into the homes and see what it's going to take for somebody to be able to live in their own environment as long as possible, safely. We can transfer those into home modifications, which we work with licensed subcontractors to actually do the work of widening the door frames, building the ramps, putting in the rolling tubs, showers, those kind of things. We can augment it with assistive technology, both as an assessment and with installation and training and sourcing the products that they might need. And some of them can be quite complicated systems, and others can be as simple as helping them get an Alexa set up to turn on and off lights safely. We also do specialized equipment purchasing, and that can be anything from a compression t shirt to a custom made by size bike or stroller, and anything in between. And the state of Minnesota has just changed anybody that's on a DD waiver, those are going through faster, and they've increased the budget amount for those so that we can keep up with the cost of some of the assistive technology for them. And then our third division is transportation, and we administer bus passes. We can coordinate specialty transportation as well as taxis. And then the one that we're becoming very well known for is lift coordination. So people that can maintain their own transportation coordination, we help them set up the lift. App, and then we administer the financial piece so that they have a lift pass and can utilize that across the state of Minnesota. In addition to our waivered services, we also have built an entire community engagement division, and that includes a donated equipment program in all three of our locations. And to give you an idea of size on that one last year here at our Waite park office, we gave away $514,000 worth of equipment for free to the community.

David Hancox
Wow, that's incredible.

Sheri Wegner
I know, right, isn't that?

David Hancox
Yeah, that's fantastic.

Sheri Wegner
Yeah, Excited about that, and it's growing massively this year, we also built an assistive technology mobility lab here in the Waite park office. We didn't build one in our Duluth or Rochester office because both of those communities already have amazing Assistive Technology Labs in those communities, but we are offering pop ups where we'll go to an assisted living facility and show them different technology that's available and how it is utilized. And we don't sell anything, so we're just simply giving them access to technology that they can decide if it will benefit them. We also have education opportunities. We do those by zoom so they're available for anybody across the state with no barriers. We have volunteer opportunities because connectability was founded by a group of volunteers, and we're getting back to our roots and really enjoying having volunteers back in the organization and helping us. And then we have our connection programs, which include things like our adaptive equipment Connections program, which we did have, connected with Accra, and they helped fund that in the early days of getting it started. And it's a financial assistance program to help people get some of the equipment that they couldn't otherwise get through a waiver or other insurances or just couldn't afford. So lots of services that we have developed over these couple years,

David Hancox
you know, just from the early days when you and I first became acquainted, just hearing all of the additional services that you've added and the frequency of those services, it just blows my mind. And all of this. So much of this took place during those years when everybody was struggling because of COVID and and other, you know, challenges so fantastic. I have so many questions in my head right now. Let's start with the first one, which I think our listeners are probably sitting there right now thinking, Oh, this, you know, this sounds fantastic. How do I get in contact with these people? How do I connect with connectability? So

Sheri Wegner
for waivered services, we do work exclusively through case managers, because they're the only ones that can administer the waivers.

David Hancox
You mean county case managers correct? county case managers. Okay, great.

Sheri Wegner
So we have a very simple referral form on our website for the case manager to start the process to let us know those services needed, and from there, depending on what service it is, we might be reaching out to the client to get more information, so we can find a vendor in their area to provide that service for them, and then we submit that to a case manager for a bid. From there, they can take it on into a service agreement, and then we can actually activate services for them. And the time frame can be as short as a couple of days or as long as a couple of months, depending on a lot of variables. But we are accepting referrals for all of our services. We don't have anything on hold right now,

David Hancox
so I'm sorry, go ahead. Please finish. No, please finish.

Sheri Wegner
Our community engagement programs ar e available to anybody in the public. So anybody can go into one of our three offices and utilize that donated equipment program, either by donating equipment or receiving equipment. Anybody can apply for that adaptive equipment connections. It's just a simple application on our website, education, it's just an event. They register. It's free, and we'll get them the link. So the community side is very easy to engage with us. The wavered side does need to be utilized through a case manager,

David Hancox
and when people connect with that case manager, the case manager makes the application, it's approved. You're prepared to deliver the service, whatever it might be that they're connecting with, out of pocket cost to the client.

Sheri Wegner
If they have patient responsibility, they would have that. If they don't have patient responsibility, then it's 100% covered under their waiver.

David Hancox
Great. And I know that's often times one of the first that I'm sure is very, very helpful information for people to have. The other question I have you, you've mentioned locations a couple of times. Could you just remind our listeners of your three locations around the state of Minnesota?

Sheri Wegner
Absolutely, we are in Duluth, wait Park and Rochester,

David Hancox
in Rochester, right and earlier on in the earlier, the early part of your comments, you mentioned transition, how you can assist. With transitions as well. Does that include assisting with transitions from individuals who are exiting a residential facility, like a nursing home, or, you know, some kind of extended care facility, or something like that, into the an apartment or home of their own? Yep. So

Sheri Wegner
we have two choices. It can either be through an assessment in home modification, or it can be through transitional services. And the state of Minnesota approved increasing the amount for transitional services from 3000 to $5,000 per person several months ago, but we have now started seeing it come through DHS, so now they have a $5,000 budget to help get them moved and get that furniture and those life necessary items.

David Hancox
That's a significant increase, because I know I organization I used to work for, we did a lot of nursing home relocation transitions like that, and the budget was not that high to assist, because that's fantastic, Jason, you've got to be bubbling with questions as well. So I'll stop talking

Jason Dorow
for a minute and let you curious about the home modifications for people who aren't familiar with those. What are some examples of modifications that you might make to help make a home more accessible? Sure,

Sheri Wegner
absolutely it starts from the outside. Can they get into their home safely? So that might be that we need to do a ramp. It may be that we need to do a small lift, because maybe there's not enough room in their garage to do a ramp, because there's requirements about the steep, how steep they can be in the construction of them. So we work with companies that do the elevator lifts. It can be widening door frames. It can be widening hallways. Very often we find that we restructure space to make more of an open floor plan to allow for mobility devices, lowering countertops, doing rolling showers, simple things like grab bars that help people safely get up and down from a toilet or walking in and out of a shower. So it's a very large variety, from very simple modifications to very complicated, full construction,

David Hancox
very thorough. It's incredible. Oh my gosh. Could you please? Could you just take a moment, and I know you covered this in your broader explanation, but just to remind people of who actually qualifies for services from connectability, you've mentioned waivered service. You know individuals who use or receive waivered services, but could you talk just a little bit more about who qualifies actually for services from connectability, sure.

Sheri Wegner
So in Minnesota, it just starts with mn choice assessment through their county, everybody can anybody who thinks that they can qualify can request one. It's for people with long term disabilities. The wavered program is a state and federally funded program to help people with long term disabilities have some financial stability. They have some choices that they can use case manager to help with their budgeting, or they can choose a support person to help them. They can augment it with other state programs such as financial services management companies or agencies, much like Accra is an FMS, we work with them. There's also other insurances. We call them MCOs, but they can be prime West, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Health Partners, you care. All of those also work with the wavered program as well, and then the general public for all of our community engagement programs, no waiver, no government program required at all. That's amazing. So, David, if somebody in your household fell on the ice and they broke a hip, you know they're going to take go to the hospital, but the hospital is going to kick them out right away, right? And your insurance will cover you to get some durable medical but it's going to take a minute or two to get that kicked in. And in the meantime, you need to get that walker or that rollator, they could come to connect ability. And if we have it available, take it home with them instantly.

David Hancox
You know, it's so funny. You mentioned that because, as you've been describing all the different services and how to access them and everything, selfishly, I've been sitting here thinking to myself, you know, I'm just turned 69 so I've got to start thinking about how to adapt my home so that I can age in place, right? And a lot of what you're mentioning falls into that kind of a category. So even if you have age related disabilities that develop, you know, as you age, being able to age in place in your home. These are the kinds of services that people need, as well as individuals with established disabilities, people that have lived that their lives with a particular disability or diagnosis. So just absolutely fantastic. This is incredible. So

Sheri Wegner
one of the questions we frequently get is, what makes us different? Than any other nonprofit who does this good question, yeah. And kind of the big difference for us when we were kind of reformulating, what we did our board of directors was very forward thinking, and we realigned our missions and our visions and our values and our services thinking bigger and more globally and person centered. So a really encompassing scenario on this would be something like this, if we can get somebody transportation that's reliable and affordable, that means they can get a job, and if they can get a job, they have a paycheck, and if they have a paycheck, they can find reliable housing. So now we've taken care of a little bit of homelessness issues. If they've got housing, they probably have better mental stability. They also have secure food because they've got a paycheck. And once they've done those four things, they've moved from a survival mode to more of a stability security mode, and that's a big difference of mental stability, of surviving versus being stable. And from there, okay, they've moved into a house or an apartment, and maybe they need lawn care service. Well, that's chore services, or maybe moving into that individual's home requires transitional services. That's tour services. We do that too. They needed help moving and moving over, or maybe in their new place. It's a great place, but some things need to be modified. They do need that roll in shower. We're able to do that through a home modification. Maybe they're elderly, and some basic technology would help them be able to maintain safer because in Minnesota, at 430 in the winter, it's dark, and so you're coming into a dark home, and you have to fumble around and you have a mobility device, it's a little bit harder to navigate, versus being able to walk in your home and say, lights on, and now your home is illuminated. It's safe for you to get around, and you can do so also sometimes in Minnesota right now, even still coming out from COVID, construction still takes some time. Supply chains were definitely impacted. Contractors got backed up, and so sometimes it takes a little bit longer to make some of those modifications, but we can marry that with our donated equipment program. So yes, we're going to put in a roll in shower, but it's going to take a couple of months, but you need to have a shower, right? And so we can provide at no cost, a shower bench and maybe some suction cup grab bars to allow you to still have the ability to independently shower and bathe yourself while you're waiting for the construction to come in. And so we truly looked at the whole person and set up our services for the whole person. There's several different agencies out there that do a great job of focusing just on transportation, or focusing exclusively on the Home Modification part, or they only do the assessments, and they're really, really good at that, but then a case manager has to shop around for each one of those services, because we're a whole person, person centered approach, a case manager truly could come to us and through all of our different departments, meet the needs of that client seamlessly through the organization. That's

David Hancox
fantastic. You know? It reminds me of a conversation I had several years ago with the mom of a child with disabilities, and they had connected with home and community based services, some very similar to what you've just described. And she said for their family, it was the difference between surviving and thriving, right? And that's exactly what you've just described in your comments here. And I just I know that our listeners are going to be thrilled. How about ways to contact you. You mentioned a website once. Is there a phone number as well that we can share with our listeners, or what is the best way to begin that connection, or that relationship with connectability? So if they're

Sheri Wegner
a way for client and they're looking for any of our coordinated services, it's to ask their case manager to reach out to us. We can explain to them what we do, but we can't initiate without that case manager, so it's reaching out to the case manager first and again, super easy referral form for them to tell us what the services are needed so we can get the ball rolling for them. For the general public, we have a website, connectabilitymn.org, and it will talk about what services we have available, our different programs, our events. Shameless plug. We have a 5k 1k adaptive event this weekend that we're very excited about. It's our first ever. It's not a fundraiser. It is simply an event that's inclusive to allow people to come in, no matter if they're walking, running or rolling, to be involved, and get out and do the thing that we all do. We also have a phone number that rings to our central office and then can be dispersed out to any of our locations. And that's 320-253-0765,

and our receptionist is amazing, and she will get them connected to the right person, right division in the right location.

David Hancox
Great. Well, thank you for repeating all that. And to our listeners, I hope you took notes, if not, roll the tape back and watch it again. So did you get that information about how to connect with this incredibly wonderful resource, Sheri, I thank you so much for joining us today and having this brief conversation. Again. I'm just so thrilled at the growth of your organization and the variety of services that you now are able to provide to individuals and their families, and it's just fantastic. And I just wish you all the best in your continued efforts and your continued work. It's just fantastic and nice to know, because I know when you first started, if I remember correctly, it was pretty much in the Waite Park, St Cloud area, so you've really expanded statewide as well. So that's fantastic. I couldn't be more happy for you. It's just really wonderful. So again, thank you for joining us today, and I hope that this provides a little bit of an uptick on people coming to connect with you. No pun intended.

Sheri Wegner
Well, that's why it's called connectability, connecting people. Yep, and I would like to thank you, but also let your listeners know that Acra really stepped up and was a hand up to connectability of Minnesota when we were really making the shift in the services we were doing, it was our partnership with Acra that made a big difference, and we really appreciate that and recognize that.

David Hancox
Well, thank you for saying that. I do remember that, because that's when I remember very, very vividly and clearly our first time that we got together for a cup of coffee, just to introduce ourselves and have a conversation. And I think it was, it was scheduled for an hour long meeting, and about two and a half hours later, we both walked out of that coffee shop just and I was thrilled. It was just so thank you for that acknowledgement. I appreciate it, but continued success. I wish for you and your coworkers and the organization, and we will continue to identify you as a valued community partner and and I hope you will do the same.

Sheri Wegner
Thank you so much.

David Hancox
Good luck with the 5k this weekend. That's fantastic.

Sheri Wegner
Appreciate it. Still makes questions up, and anybody who wants

David Hancox
to do it won't be me, but, but I, I'm happy to support it. So good for you. Thank you.

Jason Dorow
Oh, David, I thought I was going to be able to sign you up for the five, or at least the one walk it. Now I have my Saturday morning plans.

David Hancox
I could walk it. I don't know that I could run, but I could probably walk it. But that, I mean, I'm just, you heard the comments that I shared with Sheri. I it. I'm just so gratified at the how they've grown over these past few years. It's just incredible. And one other thing that I wanted to mention as we prepare to wrap up here, and you and I talked about news and views earlier and and in the notes that you put together, you mentioned the ADA, because we do have a significant anniversary coming up for the ADA this summer. I think it's the 35th anniversary of the signing of the ADA, I believe, or the passing of the ADA. So we just want people to be aware of that and stay tuned. You may hear of community celebrations or acknowledgements and events around the ADA. It's still it's one of those pieces of legislation that continues to evolve. You know, it wasn't just a one and done. It continues to evolve and and so I'm very excited about that, and wanted to take a moment to mention that. So,

Jason Dorow
yep, the anniversary is July 26 It was signed back 1990 so that's what I thought. Yeah, and recognize the 35th anniversary about a month and a half from now. And I'll just say, David, I know you said you won't be running, but connectability. In promoting the 5k 1k they're making sure that whether you're running, walking, rolling or strolling, you know, this is inclusive for everyone. They just want folks to come out and enjoy the 5k one way, and it's in Waite

David Hancox
Park, right? Yes, it's in white Park. Wonderful, well, Jason, wonderful, wonderful. Way to start the summer is to be here doing another podcast with you. And I hope that your summer unfolds in a fantastic way. And I don't know if you have travels planned or specific events or whatever, but I hope they're fun filled and enjoyable for you. Yeah, whatever the summer brings. I hope there are more conversations like this with you and to read so well, yeah, I do too. That's fantastic. All right. Well, we will sign off and thank you again, Jason for CO hosting and doing all the behind the scenes setup, and you're a fantastic producer. So thank you.

Jason Dorow
A producer is nothing without his lead host. So thank you David, and thank everyone for tuning in. We'll see you again soon.