Quality Assurance | Corporate Compliance | Evaluation & Satisfaction | Education & Training
DSNWK's Education and Training Services staff provide comprehensive education, training and technical assistance to Life Plan teams. This assistance will include such areas as Individuals Rights, Service Planning, Writing Teaching Programs, Sensory Integration and Team Building skills.
Additional training presentations offered to staff include Adult and Child CPR, First Aid, Sexual Abuse Prevention, and Prevention of Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation. Direct Service staff are offered training in the Mandt System (Nonphysical and physical strategies for crisis intervention) and Core Skills Training which provides them with the essential skills needed to support individuals with developmental disabilities. Core Skills Training consists of the following components: Engagement and Recognition of Opportunities to Teach, Rationales, Teaching Interactions, and SODAS (a method for supporting and teaching decision-making and problem-solving for groups and individuals).
DSNWK strives to offer training to staff that involves participant interactions, rather than lecture type training. In many of the trainings the participants are demonstrating their skills, participating in role plays, doing hands-on learning activities, watching videos, or helping to teach the class. All the training conducted by Education and Training Services is competency based and the skills of the staff are evaluated during each training. The College for Direct Support online training curriculum is a valuable training resource that supervisors can use to assist their staff to learn about topics of interest, brush up on their skills, or promote advancement opportunities within DSNWK. Each online training module has a checklist which can be used by the supervisor to review the employees demonstration of the skills learned and to provide performance coaching opportunities between the supervisor and their employee. DSNWK also has an extensive Training Resource Library which contains over 1,500 resources in various mediums including: books, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, Pamphlets, Journal Articles, Magazines, and others which can be checked out.