WEBVTT 00:00:04.906 --> 00:00:08.461 Do you wanna start by giving me a little overview of 00:00:08.461 --> 00:00:11.027 what your job is and what you do overall? 00:00:11.027 --> 00:00:15.027 I work as the coordinator for the LINK department at YAI. 00:00:15.057 --> 00:00:19.057 LINK stands for linking individuals to necessary knowledge. 00:00:19.057 --> 00:00:23.057 So what we do is information referral resource for the entire YAI network. 00:00:23.057 --> 00:00:27.057 Typically what we do is respond to inquiries from families, professionals, 00:00:27.235 --> 00:00:31.235 and the people we support in regard to a whole range of different things. 00:00:31.235 --> 00:00:35.235 What services they might be in need of, general information, explaining the OPWDD system. 00:00:35.235 --> 00:00:39.235 So explaining what the office for people with developmental disabilities does. 00:00:39.235 --> 00:00:43.235 How to get eligibility with them. 00:00:43.323 --> 00:00:47.323 We review evaluations for people. 00:00:47.323 --> 00:00:51.323 Typicallly we get about 400 inquiries a week. 00:00:51.323 --> 00:00:55.323 That's kind of the main part of my job. 00:00:55.323 --> 00:00:59.323 In addition to that we also run some programs out of my department including, 00:00:59.323 --> 00:01:03.323 independent living skills program. 00:01:03.323 --> 00:01:07.323 Which is for adults 18 and up who are interested in learning a wide 00:01:07.323 --> 00:01:11.323 variety of different topics. 00:01:11.323 --> 00:01:15.323 We also have some social skills groups, a ballet yoga program 00:01:15.323 --> 00:01:19.323 that we provide in Brooklyn, as well as some programs for 17 to 21 year olds 00:01:19.323 --> 00:01:23.323 here in Manhattan. 00:01:23.323 --> 00:01:27.323 Oh wow that's a lot. So now you've created this database with information 00:01:27.323 --> 00:01:31.323 about COVID-19 so who came up with that idea? 00:01:31.323 --> 00:01:35.323 It really started from getting a lot of information from a lot of really good 00:01:35.373 --> 00:01:39.373 meaning people who were sending us resources directly related to COVID. 00:01:39.373 --> 00:01:43.373 Typically, on a normal day in LINK we have our IDD resource library. 00:01:43.373 --> 00:01:47.373 Which is where we keep information that's just general knowledge that would help 00:01:47.373 --> 00:01:51.373 someone that has an intellectual or developmental disability. 00:01:51.373 --> 00:01:55.373 Things like links to different resources at libraries, different benefits packages. 00:01:55.373 --> 00:01:59.373 Things like that so they can research and understand different resources 00:01:59.373 --> 00:02:03.373 that are out there. 00:02:03.373 --> 00:02:07.373 Once COVID began, we started getting a lot information where people asked, 00:02:07.373 --> 00:02:11.373 "Can you add this to your resource library?" 00:02:11.373 --> 00:02:15.373 And what we realized is, adding it to the resource library 00:02:15.373 --> 00:02:19.373 is going to make it really difficult for families to find it. 00:02:19.373 --> 00:02:23.373 So we started adding it to a page, but the page became really bogged down. 00:02:23.373 --> 00:02:27.373 The page was huge and it became again, tedious to look through. 00:02:27.373 --> 00:02:31.373 So the wonderful Cathy Bechler, who works partially in my department and partially 00:02:31.373 --> 00:02:35.373 in communications. She actually went ahead and created a database where we 00:02:35.373 --> 00:02:39.373 could enter all this information that we were getting. 00:02:39.373 --> 00:02:43.373 And it's been growing from there. 00:02:43.373 --> 00:02:47.373 Pretty much everyday we're getting at least 1-2 resources to add to that page. 00:02:47.373 --> 00:02:51.373 So linksters who work in my department will go through these resources, 00:02:51.373 --> 00:02:55.373 determine if they're going to be useful to the people we support. 00:02:55.373 --> 00:02:59.373 How to categorize them so they're easy to search for the people that are 00:02:59.373 --> 00:03:03.373 looking at the database. 00:03:03.373 --> 00:03:07.373 Who decided which resources to include? And can you give me an overview of what 00:03:07.373 --> 00:03:11.373 kind of resources you have in this database? 00:03:11.373 --> 00:03:15.373 We have a lot of different ones. There are a couple different categories. 00:03:15.373 --> 00:03:19.373 We have everything from entertainment, information on different zoos and 00:03:19.373 --> 00:03:23.373 aquariums that are doing online viewing of their animals. 00:03:23.373 --> 00:03:27.373 All the way to these are emergency resources for accessing food, these are 00:03:27.373 --> 00:03:31.373 emergency resources for accessing financial help. 00:03:31.373 --> 00:03:35.373 Information on updates that the government is giving that are 00:03:35.373 --> 00:03:39.373 specific to people with IDD as well as just to the general population. 00:03:39.373 --> 00:03:43.373 In terms of who came up with the idea. It was really the brainchild of a couple 00:03:43.373 --> 00:03:47.373 different people. Cathy definitely did the infrastructure work. 00:03:47.373 --> 00:03:51.373 In terms of determining what goes up there a lot of times it's people sending us the 00:03:51.373 --> 00:03:55.373 information, but then a linkster, someone who is an information specialist or 00:03:55.373 --> 00:03:59.373 supervisor in the LINK department is reading through it and deciding. 00:03:59.373 --> 00:04:03.373 What does this mean to somebody? Is this something that's useful for our 00:04:03.373 --> 00:04:07.373 population, should this resource replace another one? 00:04:07.373 --> 00:04:11.373 Maybe there's outdated information and this is an update. 00:04:11.373 --> 00:04:15.373 So every single day the linksters are reading through the new information 00:04:15.373 --> 00:04:19.373 that comes in and determining how it should be categorized. 00:04:19.373 --> 00:04:23.373 How to put it up there, what age group it applies to. What kind of category. 00:04:23.373 --> 00:04:27.373 Is it an entertainment resource? Is it an app? 00:04:27.373 --> 00:04:31.373 Is it a mental health resource? 00:04:31.373 --> 00:04:35.373 Categorizing it so that it's easy for families and professionals to really 00:04:35.373 --> 00:04:39.373 look though it and find it quickly. 00:04:39.373 --> 00:04:43.373 And are these resources tailored to people with specific disabilities? 00:04:43.373 --> 00:04:47.373 Or are they for everyone, disabled on non-disabled? 00:04:47.373 --> 00:04:51.373 A lot of the resources could be used by anybody. 00:04:51.373 --> 00:04:55.373 We do try to highlight those that are specific to the IDD community. 00:04:55.373 --> 00:04:59.373 There are some resources that specifically say this is for somebody diagnosed with 00:04:59.373 --> 00:05:03.373 autism., but in reality, a mindfullness app is useful for anyone who is able 00:05:03.373 --> 00:05:07.373 to get into the app. A lot of social stories could be used with any age 00:05:07.373 --> 00:05:11.373 of child or any diagnosis. Although it might say specifically 00:05:11.373 --> 00:05:15.373 that it's for someone with autism, it doesn't mean that somebody that 00:05:15.373 --> 00:05:19.373 doesn't have autism won't find it helpful. 00:05:19.373 --> 00:05:23.373 And how about accessibility? Did you have a specific concept in mind so 00:05:23.373 --> 00:05:27.373 this database is accessible for everyone? 00:05:27.373 --> 00:05:31.373 So we're trying to keep the language to typically around the second grade level. 00:05:31.373 --> 00:05:35.373 When we're describing the information, we want to keep it pretty basic. 00:05:35.373 --> 00:05:39.373 We do have an entire category that is only Espanol. 00:05:39.373 --> 00:05:43.373 Those are all resources that are either in Spanish or that we've been able to 00:05:43.373 --> 00:05:47.373 translate into Spanish. 00:05:47.373 --> 00:05:51.373 So one of my colleagues, Mara Henriquez, she is our Spanish linkster. 00:05:51.373 --> 00:05:55.373 So she has been doing a lot of work translating this is what this means. 00:05:55.373 --> 00:05:59.373 Reading through those resources that are specifically in Spanish to make sure that 00:05:59.373 --> 00:06:03.373 we're catering to that population. That they have the same access 00:06:03.373 --> 00:06:07.373 as an English speaker would have. 00:06:07.373 --> 00:06:11.373 There was a lot of criticism around government efforts that didn't 00:06:11.373 --> 00:06:15.373 quite include people with disabilities. 00:06:15.373 --> 00:06:19.373 So was this somehow a motivation for you to create this database? 00:06:19.373 --> 00:06:23.373 I mean definitely. We really want to make sure people with IDD and their families 00:06:23.373 --> 00:06:27.373 are supported in this. 00:06:27.373 --> 00:06:31.373 There is so much going on right now and it's really overwhelming. And when you add 00:06:31.373 --> 00:06:35.373 in the fact that somebody is either a person with a developmental disability 00:06:35.373 --> 00:06:39.373 or supporting someone with a developmental disability, it compounds 00:06:39.373 --> 00:06:43.373 upon that and makes those stressors more difficult. 00:06:43.373 --> 00:06:47.373 It makes explaining COVID more difficult. So trying to find those resources 00:06:47.373 --> 00:06:51.373 that help break it down into language somebody's going to understand, 00:06:51.373 --> 00:06:55.373 and helping those parents and caregivers stay mindful and help reduce their stress 00:06:55.373 --> 00:06:59.373 and anxiety, and of course always helps the people that we support. 00:06:59.373 --> 00:07:03.373 We want to give them all the resources we can so they stay calm and therefore 00:07:03.373 --> 00:07:07.373 are better able to serve the people that we are helping to support.