A Letter from the CEO

January 30, 2013

To customers, families, staff, donors, community members and friends of LIFEDesigns:

As many of you know this has been a very difficult few days for LIFEDesigns and our staff. A tragic incident occurred with a customer of LIFEDesigns who passed away this past Saturday. The caregiver for this customer is being charged criminally in respect to the care provided. We are writing to assure you of our commitment to providing the best care possible, to fully investigating the current situation and to remedying anything and everything that needs correction. LIFEDesigns is committed to providing the highest quality of care.

In respect to the current case, there is information that we would like to share with you at this time. As time goes on, we will keep everyone updated on the efforts and results of our investigation and steps that we are taking to ensure the best care possible for our customers.

First, it is important to know that the customer involved in this case was receiving care in a Host Family situation. This is a relatively unusual care model for LIFEDesigns and at the time of this incident we had only four customers in this type of setting out of the 376 we currently serve.

Secondly, the individual providing care in this host family situation was providing that care as an independent contractor under contract with LIFEDesigns. The individual was not an employee of LIFEDesigns. Additionally, the case manager that had been at the location three or four days prior to the customer’s death was not an employee of LIFEDesigns, but rather an Independent Case Manager, an employee of another agency who is under contract with the state of Indiana to oversee services for individuals served on Medicaid Waiver on a quarterly basis. The visit made last week by the other agency representative was one of those quarterly visits and no problems were reported to LIFEDesigns.

Currently, LIFEDesigns has hired an outside law firm, Bunger & Robertson, to do a thorough and complete investigation of the situation and processes within LIFEDesigns to determine where improvements can be made and to determine what happened in this situation.  LIFEDesigns is also being extra vigilant in making additional visits and inspections of all customer situations currently in place. In addition, we have increased our ongoing protocol for visits to Host Family settings to far exceed the state standards.  This added scrutiny is being undertaken immediately and will continue until LIFEDesigns has had an opportunity to review all customer settings and meet and review these settings with staff, families and customers.

 Finally, LIFEDesigns had already planned to undergo a mock CARF certification survey with a certified surveyor. CARF is a national accrediting body that reviews organizations like ours and looks at policy, practice, and customer relationships.  This review will take on additional significance because of the most recent incident.  During the survey, LIFEDesigns is going to engage another certified CARF surveyor from out of our area to undertake a complete review of LIFEDesigns from top to bottom to make sure that all policies, procedures and actual practices are sufficient and meet and hopefully exceed standards for organizations such as LIFEDesigns. We are asking that this review be thorough, complete and brutally honest so that we can make sure that no stone remains unturned. We will cooperate fully with this surveyor and take all necessary steps to adopt any recommendations. LIFEDesigns will also undergo a significant and weeklong survey from the CARF national organization for their official survey in September of this year.

Thank you for your continued support during this difficult time. Please be assured that LIFEDesigns takes this incident with the utmost seriousness and will deal with the current situation appropriately and importantly to make sure that moving forward LIFEDesigns provides the very best care.

 Sincerely,

 

Susan Rinne
Chief Executive Officer

Chocolate Success

This year’s 2013 Week of Chocolate

brought over 1,200 people to the chocolate-themed events

and raised over $35,000 for the nonprofits involved

making it a great success!

The Week of Chocolate (WOC) is a week-long community-wide festival that took place this year from January 26th through February 2nd. It has been in existence for over 10 years!  Every day of the week a different nonprofit organization hosted a chocolate themed fundraising event to raise money in support of their mission.  All funds raised at each event go directly to the agency putting on the event (i.e., Amethyst House’s Wonka’s Chocolate Carnival event raised money exclusively for Amethyst House). Again this year, LIFEDesigns (formerly Options) organized the set-up for the festival and acted as the hosting agency for the WOC overall. However, the WOC was and also is a great collaboration between all of the agencies involved and would not be so successful year after year without everyone involved. This year’s nonprofit agencies included the Monroe County History Center, Pinnacle School, the Bloomington Moose Lodge, Martha’s House, Citizen’s Advocacy of South Central Indiana (CASCI), Rhino’s Youth Center, Amethyst House and LIFEDesigns.

Most of the organization’s hold the same event for their organization each year which become signature fundraisers for them. For example, Rhino’s Chocolate Prom is a highly anticipated event each year and is a tradition for the agency, bringing hundreds of youth to the Rhino’s Youth Center to dance the night away! This event, as always, was very successful this year. New this year, Pinnacle School’s Chocolate Challenge was added to our list of events, bringing a little friendly competition to the Week of Chocolate. Also new this was the Week of Chocolate Art Sale giving local artist a chance to sell their artwork. We hope these events become great traditions like the other events: the Art of Chocolate, Chocolate Prom, Sundaes on Saturday, Chocolate Bingo, the Murder Mystery and Wonka’s Chocolate Carnival.

The Week of Chocolate is a great way to raise awareness for the causes each organization supports while also enjoying something almost everyone loves: chocolate!  Thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed the most exciting fundraising week in Bloomington at the chilly end of January! ….and thanks for helping us spread the word about the work these great organizations do in our community.

THANK YOU FOR GIVING!

Go to www.facebook.com/weekofchocolate to check out all our pictures from the events!

Energy $avings from LIFEDesigns & Energizing Indiana

Do you want a FREE energy upgrade for your home: energy efficient light bulbs, properly sealed windows and doors, insulation on your water heater, and more?

You can receive these things for FREE by having a Home Energy Assessment done on your home by your energy provider. This will not only help you save money and be more energy efficient in your home, but for every person who signs up through LIFEDesigns and completes a Home Energy Assessment, Energizing Indiana will give LIFEDesigns $25.00 if you complete your energy assessment! Once you sign up they will call and schedule an appointment with you to assess your home at no cost to you, including making needed improvements!

TESTIMONIAL

It was easy! I signed up with just my address, phone number and energy provider and I got a call a few weeks later. A Duke employee came to my
house in the evening after I got home from work and checked my furnace
filter, installed low flow devices on my sinks, toilets and shower, and also
changed all my light bulbs to more energy efficient ones. He also improved
the insulation around
my window and door frames. All for FREE!

-LIFEDesigns Employee who signed up for this FREE energy assessment

Your electric service must be provided through Vectren, Duke Energy, IMPA, NIPSCO, Indianapolis Power and Light or Indiana Michigan Power. Click on the links below to find out all the details, if you qualify and to sign up. Please return these forms to LIFEDesigns by fax at 812-332-1186, or to the office in person or by mail at 200 E. Winslow Road, Bloomington, IN 47401. Or call us at 800-875-9615 and we will sign you up over the phone. It takes less than 5 minutes! Thanks for helping LIFEDesigns while saving yourself some money and helping our environment, too!

Energizing Indiana Sign-Up Sheet

Energizing Indiana – More Information

Energizing Indiana – What do I get?