All States/Territories

The Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project has two newly-revised fact sheets National Spending on Long-Term Care, looks at total spending for nursing home and home care services nationwide, in total and by major payers. Medicaid and Long-Term Care, describes Medicaid's role in financing long-term care, with a particular focus on home and community-based services and how states' provision of these services may be affected by the policy changes in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

Certainly, stigma is one of the more formidable obstacles to a transformed mental health system. This resource kit is intended to raise awareness of mental health and help counter the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental illnesses. Users are invited to use the kit with event planning, partnership development, outreach to schools and businesses, mental health resources, marketing to the general public, and grassroots outreach.

ADRCs can be affected by both external and internal changes in leadership. Organizations that plan for and carefully manage a leadership transition, however, can minimize disruption and even use the change to shift direction and strengthen organizational capacity. This issue brief offers suggestions for ways ADRCs can manage transition and position themselves to take advantage of opportunities to strengthen collaboration and advance the goals of the ADRC program.

Creating a single assessment tool to be used across age and disability has been an interest of states, policy makers, and providers for years. An interest also exists to develop a consumer-driven participatory assessment where consumers take a more active role. Following review and input from a diverse work group, this tool was piloted for 16 months and a qualitative evaluation was conducted to determine its utility. The development process yielded key findings and recommendations.

Is your program challenged by effective methods to meaningful consumer involvement in the redesign of long-term services and support systems? This report reviews the history and effectiveness of the consumer involvement strategy used from the consumer, state partner, and grant staff perspectives. The report informs future consumer involvement methods in grant activities and other policy decision-making activities and also identifies lessons learned and creates recommendations.

This paper focuses on the experiences and perceptions of community liaisons and the managers of Consumer-Directed Agencies (managers) who participated in the Massachusetts Real Choice Pilot. The experiences of the Real Choice community liaisons and managers provide insight relevant for the larger implementation of the support brokerage component for an Independence Plus option that will be available within the Massachusetts Community First waiver.

Does self-determination refer to a curriculum that teaches students with disabilities to be self-directed problem solvers, a technique for redirecting funding streams to control the dollars allocated for their supports and services, or a philosophy grounded in democratic values and constitutional principles of autonomy and liberty? Or is it two or three of these? TASH invites you to read this Exchange focusing on the need to have more coherence and consistency in terminology/descriptions.

Is there a growing recognition that loneliness, helplessness, and boredom plague long-term care? This report examines six issues facing policymakers: financing and insurance, supporting and educating caregivers, the challenges of changing the physical and organizational environments in which services are delivered, recruiting and retaining a qualified workforce, designing a more effective regulatory control system, and adapting and integrating health information technology to long-term care.

This website offers products, courses and services, online resources, and news and announcements for health professions education, and to improve access for people with disabilities to health, health education and health care services. Check out a number of their great resources including the Evacuation Preparedness Guide, Aging with a Disability information, and other tools for decreasing health care barriers.

Medicaid clients and advocates have stressed the importance of case management services to ensure that clients have access to supports, choice among providers and services to meet their needs. Quality became a primary topic of discussion for the Quality for Equality (Q4E) Committee. The Q4E identified concerns regarding the process by which the Department and case management agencies incorporate client input into quality improvement initiatives. Review the Q4E’s final report and recommendations.