Real Choice Systems Change

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.

This is the final report and recommendations from the Colorado Quality for Equality (Q4E) Committee, a collaborative process involving Medicaid consumers, Department staff, providers, regulators, advocates and other interested stakeholders. The Q4E Committee's work found three recommended activities including Complaints Program Website Improvements, Case Management Client Satisfaction Survey and Secret Shopper Pilot Project.

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.

Quality Councils: A Crucible for Change: Issue 1, Volume 2 takes a look at quality teams at work in four NCI States (Rhode Island, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Alabama). Councils are charged with various tasks: sharing views on data; identifying trends; suggesting additional outcomes and indicators; recommending targets for service improvements; and monitoring progress on targets over time. Please read on for a glimpse into their workings, achievements, and plans for the future.

To what extent have several key state agencies and bureaus embedded concepts such as partnerships with families and citizens with disabilities, consumer decision making and self-determination into the training of their staff? This report is a follow up companion to a previous study and provides a good window onto 'grass roots' perspectives of consumers and families receiving services while informing agencies about how their particular efforts compare to those undertaken by others.

Review this two-part report on establishing an Association for Direct Care and Direct Support Workers in Maine. The materials feature a timeline of activities, challenges and outcomes for the Maine PASA program. The companion piece, Our Stories provides snapshots of the work that PAS face everyday. These informative reports illustrate the developments and productivity of the program through examples and pictures.

As part of the Real Choice grant activities, Maine identified the need for a survey of consumers on the Consumer Directed Physically Disabled Waiver. This report provides the results of the in-home survey that was conducted by the Muskie School. The survey results identified some areas of focus and opportunities for increased training. Based on survey results, changes were made to the emergency back up plans, training with adaptive equipment and CNA registries.

Maine's Real Choice Systems Change Initiative has done work in four major areas: Data integration, Quality, Access and Person-Centered Services. This paper reports on the accomplishments at the conclusion of Quality Choices I. Report sections include: Background, Goals and Objectives, Project Selection, Pre-Design Planning, System Design, Challenges, Lessons Learned, Next Steps and Sustainability. The appendices offer examples of Critical Event Intake & Triage Forms plus a BEAS Event Form.

Are citizens with disabilities able to participate in all desired aspects of community life in the town in which they live? The Real Choice System Change Community Inclusion Assessment was launched “to determine the level and quality of inclusion in Connecticut communities.” Consumers with disabilities and their families were recruited to answer this survey both on-line and via telephone.

As part of the New Freedom Initiative, 17 states have been awarded Real Choice System Changes grants. The $25.8 million in grants is to help people of all ages with disabilities or long-term illnesses live in their homes and participate fully in community life. Review the list of Systems Transformation Grant Awardees and Family to Family Health Information and Education Center Awardees.