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2009 Insurance and Flexible Benefits Enrollment

It's that time of the year again when participants can make changes to their insurance coverage.

All changes made now will become effective January 1, 2010. 

From October 15th to November 16th employees CAN:

• Add or cancel optional special accident insurance – Must be completed and submitted on paper enrollment form.
• Add, increase, decrease, or cancel optional term and/or universal life insurance - Must be completed and submitted on paper enrollment form.
• Cancel health and dental insurance - Must be completed and submitted on paper enrollment form.
• Add dependents - Must be completed and submitted on paper enrollment form.

Employees CAN NOW:

Use Employee Self Service (ESS) in Edison to:

• Change to another health plan and/or switch from family to single 
• Add or change dental plan (switch from family to single)
• If you want to enroll in Flexible benefits for 2010, you must enter into Edison the amount you want deducted.  (Remember, you receive 24 payroll checks.  So it is a deduction each payroll check.) 

Employees CANNOT

• Enroll in Health Plan. This can only be done through a Special Qualifying Event (SQE) or by medical underwriting.
• Got questions????  Contact your local benefits coordinator!

Sandy Sauceman, HR Analyst 3

Tennessee Employees' Charitable Campaign: 'Little Can Be Much'

 

The 2009 Tennessee Employees Charitable Campaign will end on November 13.  The theme for 2009 is "Joining Together - Making a Difference" .  The Goal for DCS contributions is $17,690, which reflects a 4% increase from last year's contributions.  We want to help ensure that all staff is made aware of the opportunity to contribute to the charity or charities of his/her choice.  As a result, a list of Charitable Organizations, Campaign Brochure and Pledge Form can be secured from the DOHR web-site via the following steps:

 

a) go to http://www.tn.gov/dohr/employees/charity_fund/charity_fund.html and

b) scroll down to one of the aforementioned documents (links).  Your completed Pledge Form should be submitted to your local HR Representative. 

 

The economy has made an impact on everyone, but every contribution counts in making a difference. 

" Little can be much".  Participation in the TECC is voluntary. 

 

For more information, please contact your local HR Representative.  

 

Submitted by DCS Human Resource Development Division

Community Service at a Day Care, Wilder Style

September 14, 2009 was a special day for a number of students and staff of Wilder Youth Center as this was a day set aside to provide a community service. As an activity of service, honor students were selected to offer and provide a day of service to a local daycare center during which they provided carpet cleaning and painting.

Before the work began students and staff took part in a segment of the A.R.T. program to familiarize the owners and operators present with the purpose and goals of the A.R.T. program and how the day’s community service being provided was an important step in achieving positive character traits highlighted in the program.

The students worked with enthusiasm to complete the tasks at hand and enjoyed having the opportunity to “give back” to the community. The owner and operators of the day care were very pleased to have been the recipients of the efforts of the students who left the daycare clean and sparkling. The students were rewarded for their hard work with a buffet lunch at a local restaurant.

The Taft Chess Project

" . . . As a result of the Taft Chess Project, Case Mangers report greatly increased chess playing activity on the dormitories during students’ free time, and on weekends.  Several CSOs were also surprised at the increased activity, preferring chess activity to the usual card playing, and added that chess playing is usually more civilized and quiet, enhancing the dorm environment for all.  (This writer has witnessed this, and also noted that whenever a board is brought out on the dorm, it always gathers spectators who are most often very respectful of the contest in progress, content to watch quietly. ) . . "

Curious about Roy Barger's chess experiment at Taft?

Download Chess at Taft

Congratulations

It is with great pleasure and tremendous pride that I tell you that we have now received notification of  compliance on three more regions:  Mid Cumberland, Smoky Mountain and Shelby regions have been identified as being in compliance with  COA standards!!

The work you have done is nothing short of incredible and speaks volumes to your dedication and commitment to those children and families we serve. 

Viola P. Miller

DCS Video: Community Partnerships

We are pleased to announce the completion of our first Community Partnership DVD for your viewing. The participants on the DVD represent voices from communities across the state expressing the importance of community engaging and support. Our goal is to allow these examples to give the viewer a greater appreciation of the value and involvement of all communities.

You may contact Community Partnerships and Support Services for more information.

Servella Lee Terry

COA: Group Homes and the Praise They Deserve

Because our Group Homes are smaller with many fewer people involved,  I have worried that their hard work and dedication have not always received the attention and praise that they deserve.

Every group home visited and reviewed has received incredible accolades. . . . things like, "The best I've ever seen." from our Peer reviewers.

The staff at every group home has worked tirelessly to make absolutely certain that they were prepared and ready for every site visit and have been recognized over and over again for excellence by the COA Peer Reviewers.

Joel and Becky have been there every step of the way and have been outstanding!!  They deserve our highest praise and thanks along with the excellent group home staff!!!  Congratualations to each of you for a job very well done

Viola P. Miller

COA: Shelby Has Brought Us Home

Our Shelby Region today had an absolutely outstanding Peer Review Exit Conference.  My sincerest and heartfelt congratulations.  They had not only the burden of representing themselves well, but also being our final hurdle to finish this long an difficult race.  I can tell you with no reservations that they represented themselves and all of us and every region in the state extremely well.  Congratulations to our Shelby DCS family!!!

The reviewers were extremely impressed with our staff and their dedication and perserverence in serving our families and children.

In every region, every review and no different for Shelby, our CFTM process stands out as a beacon of excellence in serving our families and children.  If there is one single thing that has convinced the reviewers that we are worthy of recognition for best practice it is the fact that the CFTM is the very core of the work we do.

They LOVED the CQI/PQI.  One of the reviewers said that he has done four COA reviews before and is the person responsible for making certain that all of his state's regions are PQI/CQI ready and he had NEVER SEEN BETTER than what he saw in Shelby.  What a wonderful compliment.

Jennie had a great story to tell about her experience at the group home and commented about how very clear it is that this young man is getting what he needs at Peabody.

They loved the adoption work, the CPS work, Kinship and Resource home work they reviewed.

This was an outstanding review.  Shelby really shined in getting us across the finish line!!  I am so proud of everyone in Shelby who worked so very hard.  

Viola P. Miller

Smoky Mountain Region Makes Us Proud

The folks in Smoky are all smiles and happy tears. Their COA peer review was outstanding. They had a long list of wonderful things to say. One of my favorites was the story of a post-custody youth. He reported with great pride that he is now in college. He gives all the credit to his caseworker. He said that she always listened to him worked with him and cared about him. He reported that now he believes that he can do anything he wants because his CM believed in him.

The reviewers were thrilled with the focus on outcomes, the use of data in decision making, our system of care reflected in the CFTM model, and the pervasive engagement in CQI.

They were all complimentary of the outstanding staff and leadership in Smoky.

It was a wonderful experience and I congratulate them.

I just hope that Carla has dried her tears by now!!!!

Viola P. Miller

Pilot Projects: The UC on Facebook

The Upper Cumberland region decided to give the social networking site, Facebook, a try in getting the word out about the need for resource homes for teens/large sibling groups and needed services for families.  On August 20, we moved forward with the project. 

This is a pilot project for the department, in conjunction with the Communications Office. Upper Cumberland staff members came up with the idea -- and have taken the project on ourselves. We are still committed to preserving our clients' confidentiality, but, as always we're looking for effective ways to get our communities involved with the work we do.

The project is still in its infancy stages and will need to be evaluated for what needs to stay on the page and what needs to be added.  To date, the UC Facebook page has 181 friends from varied backgrounds and ages.  Some of our resource parent support staff also have become a friend and have been given administrative access to be able to post updates and send messages to all the page's friends.  We are still in the beginning stages of this effort and hope to be able to improve our efforts to continue our outreach into the community.  Our resource linkage personnel are also friends and have been given administrative access to be able to post information about our Community Advisory Boards in the Upper Cumberland. 

The page is monitored for feedback and any feedback that would be inappropriate will be removed, although we will not remove comments just because they are negative.  Instead they will be evaluated for how we can use them to better improve our services to children and families.  I have received feedback on my own page regarding appreciation for the page and the work that DCS does in service to children and families.

You can subscribe to the UC's Facebook page feed here.

Karen Seals

CM 3

Amy Grant Graces New Visions With A Dorm-Room Concert

The students of New  Visions Youth  Development Center welcomed singer-songwriter Amy Grant on Sunday, Sept. 13. 

The Grammy Award winner held an exclusive, intimate performance for the girls. She sang several of her popular songs, including “Baby Baby,” encouraged the girls to participate in singalongs and shared personal stories with the students.  

The students had the performance hall (also known as an unoccupied dorm), musically decorated with a welcome sign for Ms. Grant.  The girls presented Ms. Grant with a table runner with their hand prints and their first names as keepsakes for her.   

Following the concert, there was a pizza party where Amy personally autographed her autobiography and a color photo of her for each of the girls.  She placed each of the girls’ first names in her prayer book, offering them a special place in her daily prayer.  

It was a wonderful evening for the girls. The staff of New Visions wishes to thank Ms. Grant and her manager and New Visions Community Advisory Board Member Jennifer Cooke for making this event possible.    

Ms. Grant asked if she could come back, and the girls gave her a spontaneous standing ovation.  We at New Visions are looking forward to her return.

Barbara Lonardi

Law Changes Longevity Pay Procedures

In compliance with the law enacted in 2009 by the General Assembly, the State of Tennessee will pay longevity on a separate payment unless the employee elects otherwise. Employees who wish to receive their longevity on a separate check from their regular pay do not need to do anything. Employees who wish to receive their longevity combined with their regular pay will be able to select this option under Employee Self Service, or by completing a Longevity Payment Election Form. 

For more detailed information click "Edison Information" from “My Page” when you open Edison and check "Payroll Information".  You will find documentation concerning these changes in the folder labeled "Changes to Longevity". 

Please contact the Edison Payroll Call Center with any questions concerning these changes at 1-877-944-3873 or 615-741-PAID (7243).

TFACTS Q&A Volume II

Thanks to everyone who submitted TFACTS questions--keep them coming! Please send questions via Groupwise e-mail to: EI DCS TFACTS Feedback. 

Here is our second installment of TFACTS Q&A:

 

Will the information that is now on the G and W drive be sent to the FFA in TFACTS, or will all those FFA's not be in the TFACTS system?

 The FFA information currently stored will not be converted to TFACTS, although it will still be available to reference. Program management is still making decisions about how to handle the new input of information into the FFA available in TFACTS, such as possibly starting to put current information in from the next due date following implementation. Of course, you will be able to start entering information that will populate the FFA, from other assessments, right away as well.

 Will the new TFACTS system be able to send a notification of pending intakes needing assignment? Or any type of alert to help with this?

There are two types of Intakes that will be managed via Intake workload screens in TFACTS: CPS Intakes and Other (Non-CPS) Intakes. TFACTS will provide for the assignment of a regional CPS staff person by Central Intake, who will then in turn be able to assign the Intake to a CPS Worker. The worker can then link the Intake to a Case if needed. Other (Non-CPS) Intakes (ICPC/ICJ, Out of State Courtesy, Post-Custody, etc.) will be generated directly from the Other (Non-CPS) Intake workload screen. However, no alerts or notifications (e-mails) were identified to prompt the regional staff when Intakes are created, so monitoring of the Intake workload screens will be necessary.

 

I need specific filters for the work I do in recruiting resource parents.  I do pray that your design will enable me to filter by date and county.  The report pull capabilities are currently archaic and not even that useful.

Currently, certain reports can be accessed directly from TNKids. It will not work quite this way with TFACTS, except for certain specific reports. The ones that will be available directly from the TFACTS application will include the federal AFCARS, NCANDS, and National Youth in Transition Database reports, and 15 financial reports. Some other reports may be available via data extracts from the TFACTS application in the future. The majority of reports, of the type that you're describing (such as placement), are under consideration for availability via an application called Microstrategy. It will pull from data stored in a data warehouse, and the ability to develop reports that filter more useful information will be enhanced. The Analysis and Reporting office at OIS is working on the reports that won't be directly available through TFACTS. 

Can a system be worked in that will allow us to filter by county when searching for a child?  For example when we search in the current TN Kids and we don't have a DOB or middle initial then 50 J. Smith's could come up, but if we are looking for a child in a particular county that would assist in the search.

 Unfortunately, it will not be possible to search by county in TFACTS when implemented. The feature will allow workers to search on more criteria (narrow the search) than TNKids, so the possibility of returning duplicate persons will be less likely. The confidence match in TNKids is not very reliable, for the most part. TFACTS will have an enhanced Person Search that will present better match options, using the Informatica Identity Resolution (IIR system).  

The TFACTS Person Search will offer the same searchable fields as in TNKids (Person ID, SSN, or Name) and just like TNKids, users will still be able to narrow the search down by including fields such as DOB, Gender and Race. However, you'll have the option of narrowing down a search even further by searching for street addresses in TFACTS.  

TFACTS will also provide the ability to search by a particular category, such as Person Search, Intake Search, Case Search, Resource Search or Employee Search.  All you'll have to do is click on the appropriate tab. Currently, the worker has to scroll down the left navigation and treasure hunt for a particular module to search on (i.e. to search for Resource Home, for example) in TNKids.  

Currently in TNKids it is difficult to find the resource family's phone number for our FSW's.  It would be great to have an easy, obvious means to find this information.  We need to be able to use this as a reference to get a phone number of where our children are placed.

This information will be available in the Resource Address tab under Resource Basic Information in TFACTS. This information will also be available by using Search options (described above).

Information can be stolen when transmitted wirelessly- what if TFACTS was accessed through a wi-fi system?  Can security be maintained under those conditions? What have you put in place to monitor for security and confidentiality? 

1) Our users will be authorized for access to TFACTS much as they are currently authorized to use other DCS systems.  Obviously, just as they do now, users will need to keep their credentials (usernames/passwords) private and not share those credentials with anyone.  Our best defense against intrusion is for our users to keep and use good security practices, such as ensuring they have strong passwords and that those passwords are kept secret.

2) The TFACTS web application is being built using industry standard web security protocols such as SSL (Secure Socket Layer) data encryption to protect data while it's in transit from your computer to the server and back.

3) Our TFACTS server farm is housed at the State's Data Center in Nashville-- the Data Center uses state-of-the-art architecture to ensure the security of the data housed on those servers

New Destination for Your Travel Expenses on October 1

TO: All Fiscal and other Staff    

FROM:    Joe Holzmer, Executive Director of Finance and Administration

DATE:    September 18, 2009

SUBJECT:    TRIPS Alert **** TRIPS Alert**** TRIPS Alert **** 

Please be aware that we will NO longer be using TRIPS as of September 28, 2009.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:    If you are not up-to-date with submission of your mileage reimbursement requests, by September 25, 2009, YOU MAY NOT BE PAID.  At a minimum, your requests will become taxable income to you if submitted after 60 Days old.  At the maximum payment could be withheld for a substantial length of time.  

In either event YOUR mileage/travel reimbursement requests must be APPROVED THRU 2ND LEVEL APPROVAL before Friday, September 25, 2009, in order to be reimbursed.  

If mileage/travel reimbursement requests have not been approved thru 2nd level approval by 2:30 p.m. on September 25, 2009, the remaining unclaimed days in September will be entered on October 1st in Edison.

Beginning October 1, you may begin entering your travel and mileage reimbursement requests directly into Edison.

Here's a link to the Edison guide  about learning how to handle travel expenses.

Some things are just plain cool (updated)

Some things are just plain cool.  And this is one.

 The State has developed a new internet tool, now available to assist persons in locating programs and services.

http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/gov/family-resources/

 There is information on job training, mortgage and financial assistance, energy and transportation, and of course my favorite, Health Insurance and Health Care.

If you want to know whether a family you are working with might qualify for TennCare, just do a couple of clicks. 

 This one is a definite fave.

 Mary Beth Franklyn

PS: Our good friends at Cover Tennessee have also weighed in:

This is great, but it actually is linking to "Help for Tennessee Families," which is just a directory of services.  FindHelpTN is an actual questionnaire that folks complete to get a customized report of potential programs and services.  The correct link is www.tn.gov/findhelptn.

Click away.