Physical Disabilities

Summary presents key findings from a collection of nine studies conducted in 2009–2010, focusing on the employment efforts of working-age (age 18 to full retirement). Three of these reports concern TTW participants and program issues, while the other 6 are studies on more general topics related to beneficiary employment and SSA work supports. These nine studies constitute the fifth report of the Ticket to Work program evaluation.

Report illustrates the need for careful planning on how to address the health disparities experienced by persons with disabilities into the next decade. Because the perception that disability is solely an aging phenomenon, current analysis to people of working age (18-64) is limited. Also, little research compares the health disabilities to that of other racial and ethnic minority groups. The report suggests the time is now for a national plan to address disparities.

This report explains the Jobs to Careers program, a model of training and education designed to advance the skills of direct-care workers. It describes how the program has been implemented in Hartford, Connecticut, and Portland, Oregon. The report also presents a list of next steps and recommended goals to improve state and federal policies relating to direct-care worker training. Jobs to Careers is managed by the national nonprofit Jobs for the Future.

The impact of disability is wide ranging, influencing nearly every aspect of affected individuals’ lives, including how they seek and receive health care, how they process information, and what level of independence and community participation they enjoy. Evidence-based care has potential to improve the lives of American adults with disabilities. This brief presents methodological and design issues for researchers to consider.

Adults with disabilities have diverse, complex, and expensive needs for health care services, costing the health care system $398 billion in 2006. This group, which represented 14 percent of the adult population in 2008, will grow larger in the future. This report discusses study designs and outcome measures that can be used to address different comparative research questions. Policymakers, practitioners, and the public need a better understanding of what works for study designs.

This resource guide highlights the importance of mobility options for American Indian elders and support the efforts of Title VI aging services and Tribal transit programs to provide transportation to elders living on reservations and Indian lands. Order the resource in hard copy from the NCST library or download the electronic version.

What is meant by person centred approaches, thinking and planning?Review a series of nine videos about person-centered planning. The goal of this project is to provide support for the creation of best practice and its implementation by individuals and agencies. Topics include history of lifestyle planning, training, how to get started and personal stories.

How does the state of Virginia measure how financial incentives affect disabled workers' decision to work? To learn more, read this report which features a model used to predict behavior of individuals, budget costs, and related savings of the Virginia Medicaid Works program, along with the well-being of affected individuals. This frame-work will also be used to predict how proposed changes in the Medicaid Works program would affect behavior.

How is the state of Virginia working to better understand its Medicaid program's efficacy? This report aims to develop a framework to understand the incentive effects of the Virginia Medicaid Works program that provides disabled Medicaid recipients the option to earn higher income while ensuring continued Medicaid coverage. By decoupling labor market decisions from Medicaid receipt, the primary objective of the Works program is to increase the employment and earnings of disabled recipients.

This study evaluated impacts on employment and earnings levels among people with disabilities of eliminating the cash cliff aspect of Social Security Disability Insurance, in which beneficiaries lose their entire cash benefit when their earnings become too high. Findings demonstrated that an SSDI offset can have a significant effect on the SGA earnings rate of beneficiaries, but that the effect may be limited to a subset of individuals, and may be enhanced when paired with healthcare protection.