Rutgers/NASHP

Access to assistive technology for people with disabilities is a basic foundation of the President's New Freedom Initiative. The Executive Memo summarized here furthers the President's desire to ensure that all people with disabilities have access to programs and services that promote the opportunity for them to live independently and lead productive lives. Access to the Memo is available from the file included here.

This document is an Information Bulletin (# 54) on subsidized housing. The report includes a weblink and information on a \"new\" source of information available that can assist disability advocates find affordable and accessible units.

This teleconference is focused on nursing home transition issues for grantees of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Real Choice Systems Change Grant program. The conference discussed the CMS’ recently released State Medicaid Directors letter allowing home and community-based services waivers to cover nursing home relocation transition costs and the results of case studies conducted by MedStat of state nursing home transition programs.

This audio conference was organized specifically to meet the needs of grantees who expressed interest in finding out more about both the Cash and Counseling demonstrations and the Independence Plus Waivers.

A number of CMS grantees are working on quality assurance and improvement initiatives as part of their Community Living Grant activities. This audio conference was organized specifically to meet the needs of grantees who expressed great interest in hearing about what CMS requires for quality in community-based services, about promising practices and quality assurance and quality improvement and overall CMS goals for quality services.

This teleconference focuses on three programs offered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD. The three programs are-Section 811 Supportive Housing Programs for persons with disabilities; Mainstream housing opportunities for persons with disabilities and Continuum of Care; Homeless Assistance Supportive Housing Programs.

This purpose of this teleconference was to discuss options for combining Medicaid long term care funding and expanding the scope of long term care services. The call was organized in response to a need identified by a grantee and included states that were available and had relevant experience with the questions being raised.

As CMS grantees are continuing to identify strategies for successful nursing home transition to an array of community living options, there is an ongoing need to identify resources for support of assistive technology access and use. Each state has an AT project, which can assist you with questions about assistive technology and home use. The following brief report provides additional information about the AT Act and state contacts.

Recruiting and retaining qualified workers is challenging for policy makers, providers and consumers of long term support services. The Vermont Department of Aging and Disabilities and the Division of Developmental Services organized a forum to explore best practices in Vermont. Over 140 policymakers, provider agencies, workers and advocates attended the forum. This is an overview of that forum.

This issue brief provides a snapshot of associations and public authorities. The intent of this document is to identify and describe existing approaches to addressing long-term care workforce issues, not to endorse or evaluate the different models. Website links are provided for those interested in obtaining more information about the efforts described in this document.