APRIL 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 21
As the nonprofit WellLife Network nears
its 40th anniversary, the organization
continues to meet the growing
challenges of individuals with intellectual and
developmental disabilities, mental challenges
and substance abuse issues.
We recently interviewed Sherry Tucker, WellLife
Network CEO, about how it’s using technology
to achieve its mission and overcome some
challenges, as well as how technology is creating
new challenges.
Q: What is the mission of WellLife Network?
A: What we try to do each and every day is
provide opportunities for the individuals we
house and treat to reach their very highest
potential in whatever space they occupy. We
serve both children and adults with intellectual
and developmental disabilities, mental health
challenges, and substance abuse issues.
Q: How does your organization use
technology to accomplish
that mission? A: Our industry
is in a major transition right
now to what’s called valuebased
payment methodology.
That means we have to utilize
data to measure exactly how
we add value to the individuals
we serve. To that end, we have
several different electronic
health records to ensure
that we continue to use the
right technology to help the
individuals in our programs
achieve their wellness goals.
We’re also working on building
a robust data warehouse, which
will allow us to pull together all
of our data and organize it in a
way that helps us measure the
key indicators required for our
sector, all in real time.
Q: Have you used virtual
reality? A: There’s opportunity
in our programs to try to use
virtual reality to provide a
broader array of opportunity for
our participants to experience
different environments – to be
How WellLife Network is using technology to achieve
its mission and overcome challenges
able to put on VR glasses and
go to Russia or go undersea
and swim with the dolphins.
We’re interested in piloting
one of those VR projects
with our Intellectual/
Developmental Disabilities
group in our Day Habilitation
program to where they could
take some mini-vacations on
their VR glasses when they
come to class.
Q: Have you looked into using artificial
intelligence (AI)? A: We considered AI. We
just couldn’t justify the cost at this point. We’re
hoping that at some point we might be able to
utilize artificial intelligence.
Q: Is cybersecurity/data security an issue for
your organization? A: It absolutely is a big issue
for us. The data that we have is something that
would be of interest to those
who are out there trying to
hack in and steal data. So
we have to be very vigilant
and careful about making
sure that we have a strong
system in place, and it does
take a lot of resources in our
IT department to ensure
that we have built a good,
strong security system. We
also have 1,800 employees,
so that’s 1,800 opportunities
for hackers to try to trick somebody by sending
a phishing email or all kinds of different things.
They’re very sophisticated and they’re always
trying. We have hired a group to try and hack
into our system as a measure to make sure that
we have the right security in place.
Q: What is the biggest challenge of your
job and why? A: The biggest challenge is
that there are a multitude of
challenges and they can come
from all different directions.
Technology is one of the
challenges: trying to keep up
with the changes that are
coming and the fact that you
basically are out of date as
soon as you jump into a new
technology solution.
Q: What makes WellLife
Network special/unique
compared to other similar
organizations? A: We serve
a wide array of individuals
facing many life challenges –
mental health; intellectual/
developmental disabilities,
substance abuse, family issues,
homelessness and more. These
services are integrated. So, if
someone with a mental health
issue requires residential
services, we can easily access our
network to provide the needed
services. All of our services are
“linked” and reflect our mission
of helping all people reach their
life’s goals.
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