Community Services

Behavioral Support Specialist (BSS)

Behavioral Support Specialist work with clients to offer individual counseling, emotional support, mental health intervention, and behavioral support. This is accomplished by offering direct individual treatment for issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, loss and grieving, guilt, difficult family dynamics, anger management, and coping skills. These 1:1 Cognitive Counseling services are short term; solution focused and include identification of client’s personal strengths, abilities, and affirmation for their efforts. Included in this service is assisting clients in finding long-term mental health support and support through stabilization in the community. Additionally, behavioral support assists with challenging behaviors by working with clients with hoarding behaviors to minimize clutter and downsize items that jeopardize the client’s current placement, clients that are difficult to place and for clients that need a behavior support plan, treatment plan, or safety plan to ensure successful placement or stabilization in the community. Often times to accomplish these goals a Community Choice Guide and or a client Trainer are necessary services as well to accomplish and reach the goals.

Community Choice Guide (CCG):

Community Choice Guide services are in place for “supportive actions” related to Behavioral Support clients, hoarding and decluttering clients, and for purposes of stabilizing and salvaging placement. HNWC does not provide standalone CCG services not related to a client that needs BSS services, DDA services, ECS services, or Client Training Services. The purpose of HNWC having this contract is to enhance the BSS, ECS, DDA, and CT contract in stabilizing clients in their environment. HNWC’s Community Choice Guides can do housing searches and make purchases related to independent housing/AFH/ALF where relevant to stabilize BSS, DDA, ECS, and CT clients.

Client Trainer: (CT)

The Client Trainer teaches the client skills required to live in a home or community-based setting, including the use of adaptive equipment or medically related procedures, adjustment to serious impairment, maintenance or restoration of physical functioning, self-management of chronic disease, acquisition of skills to address minor depression, management of personal care needs, and development of skills to work with care providers including behavior management. Additionally, client training is used post the Behavioral Specialist and Community Choice Guide with clients with hoarding behaviors. The Client Trainer comes in after the decluttering and focuses on stabilization and training to prevent the behavior from reoccurring.

Developmental Disabilities Administration: (DDA)

Specialized Habilitation

Statement of Work. Heritage NW Consulting shall provide the services and staff to do Specialized Habilitation services which promote inclusion in the community and will be individualized based on client needs.

Heritage NW Consulting shall provide support to address up to three goals under one or more of the following Specialized Habilitation domains as authorized by DDA:

1. Self-Empowerment. Support to increase self-esteem, confidence and develop skills to achieve personal development goals.
2. Safety Awareness and Self-Advocacy. Support to increase safety awareness and effectively express desires or needs.
3. Interpersonal Effectiveness and Effective Social Communication. Support to learn and develop social skills used to build and maintain friendships or increase acceptance in the community or at home.
4. Coping Strategies Regarding Everyday Life Challenges. Support to improve problem solving skills and reduce stress associated with unexpected or unavoidable situations.
5. Managing Daily Tasks and Acquiring Adaptive Skills. Support to develop the skills necessary to reside successfully and increase independence in the home and community.

Staff and Family Consultation

Statement of Work. Heritage NW Consulting shall provide the services and staff to perform the work under the Consultation for families under the following:

1. Health monitoring to report to the healthcare provider
2. Instructional techniques
3. Residential Habilitation Positive Behavior Support Implementation
4. Augmentative communication systems
5. Consultation with potential referral resources (Mental Health Crisis Line, End-harm line, etc.)
6. Diet and nutritional guidance
7. Disability information and education
8. Consultation to existing plan of care
9. Strategies for effectively and therapeutically interacting with the participant
10. Environmental consultation
11. Assistive Technology
12. Individual and family counseling

Staff will perform task through the follow methods:

1. Develop a relevant plan of care with goals or objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time limited.
2. Provide individual consultation services
3. Provide group consultation services
4. Provide a quarterly update to the plan of care every 90 days

Hoarding Behaviors: includes (BSS, CCG, CT)

Heritage NW Consulting specialized in assisting clients to address the root causes of hoarding while also assisting them to gain control over their living environment. We have a team approach to working with these clients that includes 1:1 counseling, training on how to find better, more effective ways to manage the root cause of the hoarding, and hands on assistance to sort client’s belongings into categories of keep, discard, or donate. This is a slow process that can take 6-9 months depending on the severity of the hoard. This service would need authorization of a CCG, BSS, and CT.

One Time Clean: (1x clean)

Heritage NW Consulting has developed a team of one-time cleaners. The scope of the work is dependent on what the Case Manger reports that needs accomplished IE: avoid eviction, salvage caregivers, create safe passageways, or avoid cleaning fees to stabilize placement. Typical tasks these bids include are sweeping, mopping, dishes, dusting, laundry, trash disposal, shredding, carpet shampooing, disposal of trash, dump runs cleaning furniture, disposing of furniture, cleaning window cleaning, and arranging objects to provide safe ingress and egress to the home. Once a Case Manager sends in a request for a bid via email, a team member from HNWC is deployed to meet with the client, assess the cleaning needs, and take photos of the clutter and living spaces. A bid is put together and sent back to the case manager with photos for approval. Once approved the one-time cleaning team will go into a client’s home and perform a deep cleaning of their home that is outlined in the bid. At times, a recommendation for BSS support post cleaning may be made to the CM, if the client struggling with hoarding/OCD behaviors. This would only be a recommendation for consideration by the CM if support services are warranted to address the behaviors for preventing destabilization occurring again.

Expanded Community Services: (ECS)

Our services focus on behavioral support to assist individuals residing in long-term care facilities to maintain their physical and mental well-being and overall quality of life. We do this through direct support and training to the individual as well as with the residential staff, providing them with the tools they need in order to keep individuals health, safety and prevention of decompensation that sometimes corresponds with behavioral health disorders. Behavioral management strategies include both formal and/or informal training and consultative support services for individuals relocating or being diverted from state or local psychiatric hospitals, or who are otherwise at risk for loss of community living options due to challenging behaviors. Services also include psychiatric evaluations, ongoing psychiatric medication management and peer support services.