Psychiatric Disabilities/Mental Illness

Medicaid LTSS is not a system that was purposefully built, but rather one that evolved over time out of legacy programs that were designed to meet the needs of different populations, differing state approaches to policy, court decisions, client advocacy, and changing ideas about where and how LTSS should be provided. MACPAC’s future work on Medicaid LTSS will focus on building a better understanding and moving policy in the direction of a more efficient and effective system of LTSS.

The supports and resources around the Section 503 new rules are mainly directed toward employers who are federal contractors. Yet, these new rules could also have significant impacts on employment service providers (ESPs) who work with individuals with disabilities, offering new opportunities for them to build partnerships, expand services, and create talent pipelines. The purpose of this article is to enable ESPs to prepare for the implementation of the new Section 503 rules.

A systematic review was conducted to review the effectiveness of workplace accommodation (WA) regarding employment, work ability, and cost-benefit among disabled people. There was moderate evidence that specific types of WA (vocational counselling and guidance, education and self-advocacy, help of others, changes in work schedules, work organization, and special transportation) promote employment among physically disabled persons and reduce costs.

Using data from 360 health care providers and 540 Medicaid eligible people with disabilities (PWD), the authors compared perceived barriers to care from the perspective of both providers and PWD. The results indicated major variations in provider and PWD perceptions. Policy responses to these findings should address the specific needs of people with different types of disabling conditions rather than assuming all PWD face similar challenges in accessing and utilizing health care.

This study evaluates the outcomes of the disability applications submitted to the Social Security Administration (SSA) through the Benefits Entitlement Services Team (B.E.S.T) Demonstration Project. B.E.S.T was a collaborative effort to locate homeless adults and assist them in applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments and/or Disability Insurance (DI). The findings show that B.E.S.T contributed to increased access to disability benefits for applicants.

The employment rate among persons with disabilities is less than half the rate among persons without disabilities. Broad innovations are needed to reduce this disparity.These authors examined employers' perspective related to: a) challenges they face when hiring people with disabilities, b) advantages (i.e. the business case) to employing people with disabilities, and c) their recommendations for innovations in both the public disability employment services systems and their own hiring practices

Although Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are an important support to many people with disabilities, modifications to programs are under consideration given current and projected governmental fiscal constraints. This article provides data about levels of safety net cross-participation among working age SSDI and SSI program participants and estimates how changes to disability benefit levels might influence their economic security.

We use the American Time Use Survey to examine the extent to which adults with disabilities—defined using both the new six-question sequence on disability and the traditional work-limitation question—spend more time on health-related activities and less time on other activities than those without disabilities.

A new criticism of the variety in measures serving to identify the disabled population in the American Community Survey (ACS) has been raised by Burkhauser, Houtenville, and Tennant. This article provides another perspective on the relationship of the current ACS measure and a work limitation measure demonstrating the complications introduced by combining measures that represent two different metrics and introducing an unmeasured environmental element.

The Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration grant program helps long-term residents of institutions move back to the community. This report aims to answer several questions about the expenditures (medical care and long-term services and supports [LTSS] expenditures) of people who transition from institutional care to community-based LTSS.