Physical Disabilities

A number of autonomy-compatible vehicles exist for people with disabilities and their families to exercise choice and control over resources; however, many programs are complex to navigate and vary from state to state. In shaping a savings program, benefits planning seems to be a likely ingredient. This report illustrates why LIFE Accounts holds great promise as an adjunct to other permissible approaches for the accumulation of assets that lead to increased independence and social participation.

Essentials of Housing Teleconference was held with Guest Person, Stephen Gold, regarding a systems change strategy to provide training with regards to the largest housing programs in the nation with a focus on recipients of SSI. These included: 1) low-income housing tax credit program, with nearly $600 billion available annually for units, and 2) the HOME Partnership program, with $1.4 billion available annually. Jay Klein facilitated this call.

The Dept. of Health Care Policy & Financing awarded four grants totaling $125,000 to improve services to rural residents with disabilities in the areas of non-emergent medical and specialty transportation, adult day and mental health services. The programs are designed to remove transportation barriers, to increase the availability of psychiatry and to provide adult day services. This report summarizes program outcomes, analyzes the opportunities and challenges and outlines the lessons learned.

What kinds of items would people enrolled in Medicaid like to save for? This is a draft version of an upcoming survey created by the Wisconsin LIFE Accounts grantees. The purpose of this questionnaire is to learn how consumers are managing their Medicaid services and to gather opinions on what items people choose to save for to improve their quality of life. A LIFE Account is a savings program that would allow you to save more than the current $2,000 asset level for Medicaid.

Where are the ADRC pilot sites and what have they accomplished? A new handout provides an easy overview of the projects and their target population(s). A new one page fact sheet explains recent activities based on information provided by grantees through the Semi Annual Reporting Tool (SART).

Granite State Independent Living (GSIL) in New Hampshire provides a Personal Care Services (PCS) program. This service is part of the Home and Community Based Care/ Elderly and Chronically Ill Waiver (HCBC/ECI) program. As part of the PCS consumer-directed model, the program is designed to provide services that assist individuals to live in a community setting. This survey is used to determine satisfaction levels.

This Technical Assistance Manual was designed for New Hampshire to provide guidance on becoming a Certified Other Qualified Agency and a Medicaid HCBS-ECI Waiver Provider. The seven section report provides an overview of the long-term care service delivery system and the use of consumer-directed personal care services. There are additional suggestions for monitoring performance and marketing a Qualified Agency.

Advances in medicine and technology plus changes in social attitudes have improved employment opportunities for working-age adults with disabilities. Despite progress there are still barriers to employment. The Medicaid Buy-In program is an important component of the federal effort to make it easier for people with disabilities to work without losing health benefits. This report, the third in a series offers a profile of the 28 states with both Buy-In programs and Medicaid Infrastructure Grants.

The New Mexico legislature has passed the \"Money Follows the Person Act\" (MFP) allowing people with disabilities of all ages to choose community living. The passage of MFP dove-tails with federal legislation signed into law by President Bush in the Omnibus Budget bill. The New Mexico legislation will allow a person in a nursing facility to choose community living, and have the money that has supported the person in the facility to follow the person to the community.

This report presents the results of mail surveys of individuals who have had a long-term care needs assessment and of persons who use home care services coordinated through Elder Independence of Maine. The final results provide a useful example of how survey findings can be reported.