Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities

This tool is designed to equip consumers with the tools necessary to develop a job description, to screen and interview potential employers (personal assistants), and to train new personal assistants as well as address consumers physical needs, leisure and community needs. There are over 30 checklist forms to help determine need. This publication was produced by the Tennessee Personal Assistance Supports and Services (PASS) program.

The Tennessee Personal Assistance Supports and Services program developed this comprehensive guide to assist individuals in self-direction. The guide provides people with disabilities the information and tools needed to hire and manage a Personal Assistant. The guide discusses the differences between hiring individually or through an agency, how to process a self-assessment, offers job descriptions and performance expectations, and other checklists.

Through the Tennessee Personal Assistance Supports and Services (PASS) Program, people with disabilities will have the opportunity to self-direct the care and assistance they receive in order to live full, productive lives in their own homes and communities. This guide is designed as a handbook for agencies and mentors and offers practical information about the benefits of the mentoring process, describes roles, and offers training guidelines.

The Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (ODMR/DD) is issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to engage a contractor in a partnership to review the current Individual and Family (Draft) Survey items, recommend changes as needed to complete the development of the survey, establish the reliability and validity of it’s measures, ensure integration with the Core Indicators identified within Ohio’s Quality Framework, and develop a final draft of the survey.

The aim of this policy brief is to offer state planners and program administrators an overview of strategies being used to improve and develop programs to support individuals with co-occurring psychiatric and developmental disabilities.

The National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) has developed a new online resource. The toolkit is a practical resource targeted to practitioners and program administrators interested in integrating caregiver assessment into their work with caregiving families, older people and adults with disabilities. A compilation of materials and techniques are provided which incorporate fundamental principles and practice guidelines. Review the definitions and assessment tools.

States' Initiatives to Address the Needs of Persons Dually Diagnosed with Psychiatric and Developmental Disabilities.

In many ways, consumers are the best experts on their disabling conditions, including their own needs for support and the effectiveness and quality of programs. As a result, obtaining consumer participation and input at all stages of program design, implementation, evaluation and quality assurance is important. Effectively and efficiently involving consumers and obtaining their input, however, requires creative and innovative methods. This checklist will help to enhance full participation.

This report assesses the appeal of the Cash and Counseling demonstration by: (1) estimating the proportions of eligible beneficiaries that participated and comparing the characteristics of participants and nonparticipants; (2) describing beneficiaries’ most common reasons for agreeing or declining to participate; and (3) examining whether the demonstration affected the number of beneficiaries accessing personal care services or home and community-based services over time.

Assessing the well-being of workers hired under consumer direction and addressing their concerns is critical, because the model is sustainable only if workers are satisfied. While care recipients who manage their own care appear to be much more satisfied than others, the primary reason given for dropping out is difficulty finding or keeping a worker. Moreover, tapping consumers’ family members and friends as additional sources of labor could help solve the serious worker shortage.