Psychiatric Disabilities/Mental Illness

HCBS.org News CLIPS highlights the important work of Real Choice Systems Change Grantees. In this issue, we have interviewed Dawn Lambert in Connecticut to discuss the key strengths and challenges faced during program implementation of their Nursing Facility Transitions to Independent Living Program. Find out the program basics, success strategies, stakeholder involvement techniques and the options for sustainability.

The Compendium contains basic information about each of the Real Choice Systems Change Grantees. The Compendium will help you learn more about how these grants will be used to allow more people of all ages with a disability or long term illness to live and participate in their communities. Real Choice Systems Change Grantees will also find the Compendium useful to identify other Grantees with similar goals and activities. The fifth edition of the Compendium replaces all previous editions.

The Pre-SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) Data Form will be used by Oregon to capture, evaluate and report outcomes for the SOAR Technical Assistance project. The purpose is to monitor improvement, as a result of SOAR training, in accessing SSI and SSDI benefits for eligible people disabled by mental illness.

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.

Read about a new guide for private sector employers which recognizes the public sector system for its use of evidence-based behavioral health care services and recommends that employers use these services. This publication also includes:<br>+State Profile: Oklahoma’s Broad Spectrum Of Leaders Embrace Transformation<br>+Federal Partner Spotlight: Health Resources and Services Administration<br>+IOM Report Reinforces the Federal Action Agenda <br>+SAMHSA Helps Build on Local Strengths in the Gulf

Download transcripts and slides or view this workshop discussing the evidence base for consumer-operated, delivered, and centered services. Speakers presented the evidence grading pyramid, along with the specific levels of evidence for models such as recovery self-management, drop-in centers, advance directives, and self-directed care. A special focus is on the results of the national multi-site research study of consumer-operated service programs (COSP), directed by people in recovery.

This baseline survey has the reviews of professionals working with those at risk of losing their subsidized housing and entering a nursing facility due to emotional, cognitive, or behavioral issues. The survey was also used to better understand and identify risk factors, and import services, associated with nursing home placement, its avoidance, and training needs.

The CDS Directory provides consumers, researchers, administrators, service providers and others with a comprehensive central resource for information on national & local resources. Consumer-driven programs have a proven track record in helping people recover from mental illnesses. This site highlights the vital role consumer-driven programs play in the continuum of care & allows programs to share their successful innovations with others. Browse the listings or submit your programs for inclusion.

The Florida Department of Elder Affairs has set forth inclusion and exclusion guidelines for the integrated statewide information and referral database. This database will serve as a single point of access for information, counseling, referrals, assessment and eligibility functions, which will maximize consumer choice. The database includes entities that serve both Florida’s elders and their families, and adults suffering from severe and persistent mental illness.

North Carolina's Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services has posted a number of great resources to their website related to quality. A sampling of the forms, manuals and recent reports includes: The Quality Management Survey, a Consumer Satisfaction Survey, forms on Critical Incident, Quarterly Reports, and reporting guidelines for local management entities in their annual Quality Improvement Reports.