Georgia

Three key issues affecting the understanding of low rates of successful employment outcomes for people with mental illness are explored. These are: lack of a common definition of successful employment; lack of clear, objective, standardized data; and differences among states and programs in measuring client characteristics. Peer critiques to the data and analysis are provided along with tables comparing employment outcomes by state.

Money Follows the Person (MFP) programs only target 0.9% of the people that could be eligible for transitioning out of institutions each year. However, there is a potential to increase rates to 15-40% annually depending on quality of program implementation, who is targeted, and how successful states are in overcoming barriers to transitioning high-needs people. The report looks at grantee states’ potential for accomplishing this rate increase.

This fact sheet examines the assistance for Medicaid programs and key health provisions in the ARRA that President Obama signed into law on February 17, 2009. Subjects covered include the temporary increase in federal matching money for state Medicaid programs, subsidies for COBRA health coverage for laid off workers and funding for health information technology. It includes a breakdown of additional federal allocations to states for Medicaid costs under the act.

This eighth edition of this reference report presents comparable state- and national-level data for more than 140 indicators on long-term services and supports from a wide variety of sources. Published approximately every two years, the series was developed to help inform policy discussions among public and private sector leaders. This publication presents the most up-to-date data available at the time of production, and is displayed in easy-to-use maps, graphics, tables, and state profiles.

The experience of the Cobb and Douglas Counties Community Services Boards in Georgia in shifting from a segregated traditional service system to an innovative system focusing on economic development for persons with disabilities illustrates some common aspects of system change. The 7-year organizational evolution is analyzed here. The main points that emerged are: staff development; partnerships and funding; sustainability; management and HR practices; and expanding coverage to new populations.

An interactive map displays how many 1915(c) waivers each state has. Clicking on a state’s name displays number of participant and expenditures by waiver type as compared to nationwide numbers. Participant and expenditure data are also available for personal care, home health, and individualized budget services. Clicking “Compare” in any data area displays a table illustrating selected data for all states. Information is taken from CMS form 372 and is downloadable.

This issue of the "Policy Research Brief" series summarizes the results of a national study on the status, implementation, and degree of consumer control across states. Strategies, challenges, and best practices of consumer-directed services and supports are explored. Information was gathered through interviews with administrators of developmental disabilities services in 42 states.

HCBS.org NewsCLIPS highlights the important work related to Real Choice Systems Change Grantees. In each issue, we examine a topic related to home and community-based care by providing an overview of recent papers and publications. This issue of NewsCLIPS highlights three new issue briefs and a new promising practice report providing various strategies that policymakers can undertake when developing and supporting each of the peer support models.

This website is an on-line query system based on AoA-related data files and surveys, and includes population characteristics from the Census Bureau. The system allows users to produce descriptive information in graphical or tabular form, at the level of detail most suited for their needs. The four options through AGID provide different levels of focus and aggregation of the data from individual data elements within Data-at-a-Glance to full database access within Data Files.

This report summarizes available research to date regarding the effectiveness of peer support and presents State examples of peer support within three different Medicaid authorities (State Plan, 1915(b), and 1915(c)). State Medicaid Agencies and their partner mental health agencies can find guidance here for efforts to incorporate peer support into Medicaid programs.