All States/Territories

A one page overview of basic information about F2F centers including the purpose, activities, and techniques.

Family to Family Centers provide information and other supports both to family members and to professionals who serve children and youth with special health care needs. This topic paper highlights innovative strategies developed by individual Family to Family Centers to develop partnerships to expand their reach, to enhance outreach to parents, to serve a culturally diverse clientele, to help youth prepare for transition, and to ensure organizational sustainability.

The New Jersey Association of Centers for Independent Living website provides resources that can help users transition successfully. Centers for Independent Living (CILs) are consumer-driven organizations, owned and operated by individuals with disabilities. New Jersey has a network of 12 CILs that provide the core services of Information and Referral, Peer Support, Independent Living Skills Training, and Advocacy. Visit the web site for useful tools, handbooks, links and many other resources.

This report tracks the work of 8 Passport caseworkers from 3 different service organizations. Caseworkers noted that clients experienced mixed feelings about the program; they were excited at the prospect of transitioning into the community but also frustrated at the length of time it took to complete the transition. Throughout the survey period, the biggest success experienced by caseworkers was finalizing a client’s housing and assisting them in moving out of a nursing home.

The new consumer-directed Medicaid program in Montana, Big Sky Bonanza (BSB) program has created the following products provided to new enrollees. The Waiver Orientation manual contains a program overview, roles and responsibilities and training process. My Support Services Plan is an 18 page worksheet to help consumers develop goal statements, capture personal, health, and spending plan, create an emergency back-up plan and list medical information.

This brochure was created using feedback from consumer focus groups, peer trainers, and other stakeholders. The brochure provides safety & prevention strategies, planning for backup care, preparing for attendant support during a community-wide disaster, how to minimize risk of theft, and health care emergency instructions and form. The strategies address emergency backup and incident management for consumers directing their own care or who have an authorized representative directing their care.

A new monthly report from HUD is available on-line and is broken down state-by-state and downloadable in an MS Excel spreadsheet. Participating Jurisdiction (PJs) can use the reports to view open activities in IDIS including activities with 100% of the funds drawn and with a status code of FD, or final draw. PJs can view activities that have been open (OP) for several years with little or no HOME funds drawn. These projects, if not progressing, should be cancelled. The data is updated monthly.

This report offers the findings of an outreach project conducted with direct-care employers and employees in Maine to help connect them with a new health insurance product called DirigoChoice. The research suggest that “states experimenting with innovative health coverage plans will need to address major challenges -- such as the part-time nature of direct-care work, low wages, and low reimbursement rates -- to ensure coverage for these critical health care workers.”

What incentives help encourage in-home supportive services workers to remain in caregiving? A Connecticut College research team explores this question by surveying 2,200 workers. \"Flexibility and wages matter,\" the researchers note, \"research clearly shows that giving workers $10/hr plus access to decent benefits significantly increases the supply and retention rate of home care workers, making it possible for consumers to find good caregivers.\" The executive summary offers further results.

As the number of those needing care at home continues to grow, it is becoming more difficult to find workers. One solution is to rely on consumer-directed services, in which clients hire friends and family as paid caregivers (whom we call “related caregivers”). This study explored the experiences of related caregivers, most of which had not considered direct-care work if a loved one had not needed them and sought to understand who might represent potential home care workers in the future.