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The Venango Training & Development Center, Inc. is pleased to announce that Joanne McGuire has been appointed Chief Program Officer for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).

With over 20 years of experience in both direct care and management within the special needs field, Joanne brings a broad range of professional and programmatic expertise to her new role. After spending 14 years as a co-owner and program operator of an IDD residential program, she joined VTDC in 2022.

As a testament to her dedication to the individuals VTDC serves, Joanne chose to return to her roots in direct care, beginning her tenure at VTDC as a Community Employment Program Specialist. In this role, she supported individuals with intellectual, mental health, and physical disabilities in obtaining competitive employment through personalized coaching supports.

VTDC quickly recognized Joanne’s strengths and leadership abilities. Over the past four years, she advanced through several supervisory positions that capitalized on her organizational, programmatic, and administrative skills.

In response to the evolving landscape of the human services field, VTDC recently reorganized to enhance support for its IDD and employment programs. As part of this initiative, the position of IDD Chief Program Officer was created within the Executive Management Team.

VTDC is excited to welcome Joanne into this leadership role and looks forward to her continued collaboration with the community to ensure high-quality programming, stability, and growth.

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Please share these important workshops and support groups with your networks! Register for upcoming events at PA Family Network’s website.

Good Life Group, Support Groups

LifeCourse Workshops

Waiver Workshops

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From Chaos to Clarity: The Definitive Client Engagement Case Study
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Time: 12:00 pm CST / 1:00 pm EST
Featuring: Eastern Shore CSB & Qualifacts
Visit Here to Register

Behavioral health organizations are under increasing pressure to do more with less — reduce avoidable rework, improve access to care, and deliver a better client experience without adding staff. In this case-study webinar, Eastern Shore Community Services Board (CSB) shares how they turned fragmented processes into a streamlined, measurable client engagement strategy.

By implementing Qualifacts’ Client Engagement solutions, Eastern Shore CSB modernized intake, communication, and follow-up workflows — keeping care moving, reducing delays, and improving operational clarity across the organization.

Join this webinar to hear directly from the team at Eastern Shore CSB as they walk through what changed, how it changed, and the tangible impact on day-to-day operations.

In this webinar, we will:

  • Break down the highest-friction steps in client workflows — including intake, communication, and billing readiness — and show how Eastern Shore standardized them;
  • Explore how automated reminders and follow-ups created a consistent client engagement cadence that reduced no-shows and drop-offs;
  • Demonstrate how integrated client portal and telehealth workflows expanded access without increasing headcount;
  • Show how accelerating signatures and statements in-portal helped maintain billing momentum and avoid downstream delays; and
  • Share practical takeaways behavioral health organizations can apply immediately to improve efficiency and client experience.

Featured Speakers

Stephen Hopkins
EHR Systems Administrator, Eastern Shore CSB
Stephen has been with Eastern Shore CSB for eight years and manages all EHR configuration, reporting, virtual care, and client engagement solutions. With a background in Information Technology, he has successfully led the organization’s use of Credible and Credible Client Experience Solutions — driving meaningful improvements in portal adoption, engagement, and telehealth delivery.

Sarah Taylor, RN
Product Specialist II, Qualifacts
Before joining Qualifacts, Sarah spent 16 years as a registered nurse supporting mental health clients across emergency, crisis stabilization, and in-home care settings. She brings hands-on clinical experience and deep implementation expertise to her role, helping organizations maximize the value of Qualifacts’ EHR and client engagement platforms.

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Bringing America Greatness — Serving the Disability Community With Cultural Competency/Do No Harm
February 19, 2026
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Register Here

Session Description:

Cultural Competency is necessary for every American, regardless of age, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, economic status, disability, or handicap. Being different does not guarantee the ability to relate positively to our diversity, in a personal or professional way. This training will help develop skills that focus on living-working-playing-learning together. These skills must be practiced and learned across all sectors of our society. Emphasis will be placed on equity as a right for all Americans embraced by leaders of people everywhere from birth to adulthood. Thus, cultural competency as a skill set is both beyond but essential to diversity and inclusion efforts, providing a chemistry for “greatness” in America.

The session is free, but registration is required, and attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please review the flyer for additional details.

The session will be offered virtually via the Zoom platform. The Zoom link for joining the session will be sent to the email you used to register. This link will be unique to your registration. Please do not share this link.

Send questions on registration electronically.

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) and Temple University have developed a new online training lesson that provides an additional learning opportunity designed to enhance investigatory skills and supplies helpful resources to Certified Investigators (CI), Administrative Review Committee members, CI Peer Reviewers, Incident Management (IM) Reps, and others involved in the incident investigation process.

The Using Root Cause Analysis in the Development of Corrective Actions lesson has been added to the “Additional Learning Opportunities” section on the MyODP, PA ODP Certified Investigator Program Home page.

Please view ODPANN 26-012 for more details.

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Businessman and team work using a Laptop Computer with Webinar E-business Browsing Connection and cloud online technology webcast concept, business concept

Thursday, January 22, 2026
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET; 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm CT;
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm MT; 12:00 pm – 1:00 PT
Register Here

You asked, and we listened! Based on attendee feedback, IPRC is offering a follow-up presentation to pair with the information presented on January 6, 2026. This webinar will provide information on the new Disorders of Consciousness Program Standards in greater detail.

Please join us as IPRC again hosts special guest Terry Carolan from CARF International to explain the new Disorders of Consciousness Program Standards.

Presenter Bio:

Terrence Carolan
Terrence Carolan, Managing Director of the Medical Rehabilitation and Aging Services accreditation areas at the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), has more than 20 years of experience as a provider, administrator, and educator in the human services field. Terry joined CARF after working in clinical and administrative leadership positions within Select Medical’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Division and the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation since 2001. Terry was a CARF surveyor for 10 years and holds a degree in physical therapy from Simmons College in Boston. He also recently completed his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Objectives: At the end of this session, the learner will:

  • Discuss the CARF International Disorders of Consciousness (DoC) Program Standards in detail; and
  • Identify the process for applying for Accreditation for a Disorders of Consciousness Specialty Program.

Audience: This webinar is intended for all interested members of the rehabilitation team; attendees do not need to be CARF Certified in order to attend.

Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Certificate of Attendance: Certificates of attendance are available for all attendees. No CEs are provided for this course.

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Today, the Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) issued Bulletin 59-26-02, “Participant Review Tool,” which updates the standardized Participant Review Tool (PRT) for Service Coordinators (SC) as well as provides additional clarification on the location of face-to-face visits with participants when completing the PRT.

This bulletin also provides guidance to SCs on when increased face-to-face visits with program participants should be scheduled to protect their health, safety, and welfare. This bulletin rescinds OLTL Bulletin 59-16-12 and any other OLTL policy documents or parts of policy documents that are inconsistent with this bulletin’s contents. This bulletin applies to enrolled Service Coordination Entities (SCEs) performing services in OLTL Medical Assistance Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) for the OBRA waiver and the Act 150 Program.

Members are encouraged to review the bulletin, as well as the following documents that were included with the bulletin:

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is pleased to invite public comment on proposed changes for the renewal of the Adult Autism Waiver (AAW). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approves waivers for a five-year period, and the current AAW expires on June 30, 2026. Therefore, ODP must submit a renewal for the AAW to CMS no later than April 1, 2026. The AAW renewal is anticipated to be effective on July 1, 2026. The public comment period starts on January 17, 2026, and ends on February 16, 2026, at 11:59 pm.

As part of this process, ODP is seeking your valuable feedback and comments on the AAW. Proposed substantive changes include:

  • Separating out Life Sharing and Residential Habilitation: Community Homes as distinct services.
  • Removing the lifetime funding limit on Assistive Technology devices and replacing it with a $3,000 annual limit. Participants who need Assistive Technology that exceeds this limit may request an exception.
  • Extending the re-authorization period for Career Planning services from 90 days to 6 months and removing time limitations for the Supported Employment service.
  • Clarifying the components of the Specialized Skill Development (SSD) service.
  • Removing Speech/Language service component from the Therapy service.
  • Enhancing Home Modification service to include additional allowances.

The proposed changes discussed in the section above are available to help all interested persons provide public comment. Public comments will be accepted via email, written comments, and verbal comments during a webinar held on February 9, 2026. All comments received by 11:59 pm on February 16, 2026, will be reviewed and considered for revisions to the AAW submitted to CMS.

Please review ODPANN 26-011 for more details.

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