Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities

The Institute for Human Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City is administering the Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG) to enhance the use of Medicaid resources in Missouri. This report provides a review of research and the activities and findings related to a retreat to assess needs of Missouri employers and people with disabilities. It also provides analysis of a follow-up survey of 153 agency providers and people with disabilities. Suggestions are made for future research.

The Ticket to Work Panel released its final report to the President and Congress. Included are five recommendations including the idea of extending the Medicaid Infrastructure Grant and Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment program through 2014, creating a panel and an advocate position within the Social Security Administration to enhance beneficiary perspective, publish the final rule, create a demonstration project and examine the impact of changing the disability definition.

An example of how ADRCs can stay connected, Washington uses a simple text-only format for their newsletter that is meant to bypass spam filters. The text also allows people to "rip-and-read" so they can easily take the information out to use in other settings. There are no attachments, as requested by the newsletter recipients. The newsletter is published monthly and features Local Happenings, National News, and Job Postings.

As part of the January 2008 Monthly ADRC TAE call, Dorie Seavey and Hollis Turnham presented the idea of worker registries. Supporting materials offer an overview of the concept and state examples. Also included is a two-page hand out that lists worker registry websites and offers and example of the database potential functionalities.

The Vermont ADRC publishes this bi-monthly newsletter to keep partners and staff connected to the activities of the grant within the two local pilot regions and nationally. They will use this newsletter to highlight key activities of the grant: progress in establishing partnerships across service networks, cross training, utilization of refer and other resource databases, the formative evaluation, and community events.

This memorandum of understanding was signed as part of the Vermont ADRC project between the Vermont Department of Aging and Independent Living and the Department of Children and Families (Medicaid). The MOU is informative for streamlining access efforts. Other ADRCs designing programs will find this MOU a useful example.

As part of the Oklahoma Real Choice Systems Change Grant, Oklahoma developed a number of training tools for their partnership members. The group consisted of Consumer Consultants and Grant Partners. The presentations and handouts describe roles, working as a team, communication, decision making, policy history, state specific divisions and services and the ADvantage program.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services, through its Continuing Care Administration, is seeking Proposals from qualified Responders to work with DHS staff and key stakeholders to complete a State Long-Term Care Profile. A State Profile tool was developed by Thomson Medstat under contract with CMS. The Profile must describe the state’s long-term care delivery system for 7 population groups that account for the majority of people who need hcbs in MN. Proposals are due January 28, 2008.

This report examines experiences of Beneficiaries, State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (VR), Employment Networks (ENs), and the Social Security Administration (SSA) during the TTW rollout period from 2002–2004. Overall, Mathematica found that the Ticket to Work Program did not have a significant impact on the way VR does business or on the practices of ENs in the community. TTW did, however, begin a fundamental shift within SSA toward focusing on improving the earnings of beneficiaries.

This report describes the process evaluation findings related to ADRC implementation approaches in three expansion sites, presents an initial evaluation of the role and functioning of the ADRC Coalition, and describes the formation of the collaboration between the AAA and the Regional Offices of MHDDAD. A framework includes benchmarks for successful collaboration development, and program logic modeling is discussed as an evaluation framework to guide future process and outcome evaluations.