Behavior Support

We’re here for as long as you need.

We believe that when we agree to provide services to a person is an agreement for maintenance services as long as the person and ISP team agrees this support is needed and wanted. We don’t write plans and disappear. We plan to be a resource as long as it is needed and hope that means we watch children and adults grow and skill-building over time.

While all our behavior professionals have substantial direct care experience, we do not provide direct care. This means that we are not interrupted by staffing emergencies and program/provider budgeting concerns. We know how hard a 16-hour day can be providing intensive direct care or caring for your children at home. We will do our best to make the data collection systems as reasonable to implement and yet produce helpful data.

Since we work in all service elements (24 hour, Supported Living, AFH, Employment, Day Support, In-home, Brokerage, etc.) We have access to new ideas, training, and best practices that we can share across all service areas.

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)

The FBA is an assessment tool that begins with a referral from your local case management entity with ISP team approval. Once the service is authorized, we conduct observations during times that make the most sense for the person supported, interview those people most important to or for the person supported, and then review current and historical documents of support. Recommendations will be sent to the ISP team to determine if further assistance is needed. It is possible to have an FBA and determine that no PBSP is needed.

Temporary Emergency Support Plans

Sometimes people experience events that lead to the need to ensure their health or safety immediately while we begin the process for an FBA. We are here to assist teams in setting up temporary emergency supports while we begin to gather data, rule out medical or environmental causes, and update or create new support plans.

Positive Behavior Support

With direction from people supported, families, ISP teams, and the Oregon Administrative Rules, SilverNail NW works closely to ensure person-centered and least restrictive Positive Behavior Support Services.

SilverNail NW works with partners who are OIS certified to co-author plans that require safeguarding interventions.

Maintenance for PBSP

We believe when our professionals agree to provide Positive Behavior Supports that we are agreeing to a long-term relationship with that person and team to ensure the least restrictive approaches that build skills over time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What counties do you serve?

We are dedicated to increasing opportunity for choice and access to Professional Behavior Services outside of the Portland, Salem, Eugene corridor. We strive to provide language and culturally competent services. Currently, we are serving people in Marion, Polk, Linn, Lincoln, Lane, Yamhill, Washington, Multnomah, Clackamas, Deschutes, Jefferson.

Please contact us to see if we can support you in another county.

Are we OIS instructors?

SilverNail NW is in the process of sending a team member through instructor candidate training but we are lucky enough to have close working relationships with other OIS instructors who are willing to co-author plans if a PPI is needed. We also have a working relationship with several local instructors to refer you and your team to for DSP OIS training.

Do we meet with the same person every time, or a different member of your team each time?

SilverNail NW is a team of consultants and administrative assistants who all work together for the same outcome: Person-centered and timely support plans. Often during the intake process, we may learn your support needs match a consultant better than another. We do promote and work as a team, but the goal is that you have one person from early in the process identified who stays through the training.

How do we start?

Fill out a “request for services” form with basic information or call 503.302.6069 and leave a message. Someone from SilverNail NW will contact you within three business days to do a quick first intake to ensure that the support you are seeking is the support we feel we can meet. At this time, we will give you an idea of when we anticipate we could start.
You will be sent another intake form with more detailed information. Most people should be able to complete this intake form (names, addresses, emails, etc.) in 30 minutes. You will be asked to send the following items electronically to SilverNail NW) Entire ISP, last mental health evaluation, eligibility document and supporting evaluations/diagnosis (psych, IEP, neuro psych, etc.), and anything that helps us better understand the core concern (Incident Report, police report, drug and or alcohol evaluation, team meeting notes, etc.).
Sign a service agreement (SA) (AFH, In home, etc.), business contract (24-hour providers). or ISP change form.
Once SilverNail NW has received the paperwork and signed a SA or then you will be added to the pending list. The “pending” list is a list where we begin the assessments in the order received with two exceptions: Emergencies on our current caseload of maintenance clients, emergencies on our QA caseload.

What ages do you serve?

SilverNail NW has consultants who are familiar with working with children as young as four to people whose teams are exploring end of life care for people in their 70’s.

When are you open?

SilverNail NW provides a flexible work schedule for our team members. This means it can sometimes be late at night before a return phone call or email, or a Saturday morning. SilverNail NW believes that sometimes the observations of behaviors needs to take place in the location they are happening at the time frame they are taking place. For instance, if there are significant behaviors during the AM hygiene routine, we will conduct an observation during that time.
In general, the phone is answered Monday through Friday 9 am-4 pm and we follow the holiday schedule of State of Oregon employees.

Reasons we may decline a referral or end a contract

SilverNail NW believes that it is our mission to support people and their needs to the best of our abilities. Often that means giving hard to hear feedback to a provider about their DSP’s behavior, or setting boundaries about what we can and cannot do with a guardian.

If you are a parent of an adult and are requesting that SNNW limit sugar intake or not let your adult child have a romantic partner, then we are not a good fit for your team as we believe all people have a right to autonomy. This doesn’t mean we don’t help write plans around health and safety issues, but we believe that every adult has rights to autonomy, unless there are documented significant health, safety, or legal concerns.
Capacity: Our capacity for new referrals sometimes needs to be stalled while we catch up. We do our best to accurately report when we can start and to follow up quickly. We are humans too, with families and animals who sometimes need our attention and delay due dates.
Physical Safety: We have to ensure that our team members can meet safely with the people supported and their caregivers in safe locations.
Emotional Safety: We ensure that the ISP team members who are supporting people receiving supports behave in emotionally safe manners.
Lack of transparency: We work with teams whose goal is to ensure the health, safety, and personal growth of people receiving services. This is why we ask for your supervisor’s name on the intake form. If for some reason there is an emergency and we can’t reach you, we want to know who to contact. Just as it’s perfectly acceptable to follow up with Michelle at SilverNail NW if someone isn’t able to respond to an email or concern quickly.