Mary Griest Receives 2021 Ivan G. Hileman Award (IDD services)
Managing a calendar of scheduled in-person trainings for an entire department takes a lot of coordination. Reworking that schedule and figuring out how to make those trainings happen in a virtual environment due to a pandemic, is a whole new challenge. To meet required program regulations for Bell’s intellectual/developmental disability residential program (IDRS), all staff in the program must receive upwards of 24 hours of training every year.
According to her supervisor, Theresa Franklin, Mary continued to ensure that all staff were trained in the required number of training hours, in addition to keeping orientation and medication administration training the same, even though the PA Department of Human Services approved a modified version of these trainings, while also ensuring that Bell administrative staff were also trained, which was a new regulation.
Theresa nominated Mary for the Ivan G. Hileman award for the way she kept things together over the past year, and also because, she says, “I can truly state that she is a team player, trust worthy, hard working and employed at Bell for the “right” reasons – she wants to make a difference and ensure that the individuals receive the best care.”
The Ivan G. Hileman Award is presented to a current Bell employee with 15 or more years of employment and dedicated service, who has in the past year shown particularly note-worthy performance while demonstrating a commitment to being in it for the long haul.