Illinois

To help States build the infrastructure needed to remove barriers and create more consumer responsive LTC systems, CMS awarded $70 million in Real Choice Systems Change Grants. Fifty-two Grants were awarded in Sept. 2001 (25 Real Choice, 10 Community-Integrated Personal Assistance Services & Supports, 17 Nursing Facility Transition). This report describes the progress FY01 Grantees have made on their activities during the first year of the three-year Grant period (Oct 1, 2001-Sept 30, 2002.)

The Compendium contains basic information about each of the Real Choice Systems Change Grant awards in FY03–FY04 plus the Family to Family and Systems Transformation Grantees awarded in FY05 and FY06. The Compendium will help Grantees identify others with similar goals and activities. Learn more about how the 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. The sixth edition replaces all previous editions.

A new database showcases the efforts of many of the TA providers serving CMS’ grantees. The database allows users to see the wide range of activities that support and enrich the grantees under the New Freedom Initiative. The database contains important information regarding existing and upcoming research products, conferences, and significant meetings as well as a wide variety of toolkits, surveys, and policy briefs, intended to be of interested to the disability and long-term care community.

These two presentations cover community access and inclusion for persons with disabilities, a focus of the Idaho Real Choice Systems Change Grants. The presentations provide guidelines for planning for community access and a model for assessment of community inclusion.

This article is aimed at developing tools to help human service providers form partnerships to address and prevent stigmatization of people with disabilities. The Idaho State University Institute of Rural Health (ISU-IRH) developed two anti-stigma social marketing campaigns that incorporated methods to empower people, campaign design and distribution, and methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign.

This presentation gives a brief overview of Idaho’s Real Choice grant and Money Follows the Person grant. The goals of the project were to: reduce the stigmatization of people with disabilities, complete and economic analysis of the current Medicaid system, community development, and to complete and effectiveness study. Review their key activities, methodology, and evaluation.

HCBS.org News CLIPS highlights the important work of 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. The Fall issues provides an overview of the reports available on Money Follows the Person, a program that allows states to rebalance their long-term care support systems to support people in community-based alternatives rather than institutional settings.

A public voice for caregivers, the Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) offers information education, services, research and advocacy programs to support and sustain the vital work of families caring for loved ones. The website offers fact sheets, audio archives, referrals, newsletters, issue briefs and reports. A newly updated resource map called Caregiving Across the States allows state administrators, policy makers, and caregivers to access state-by-state data from an interactive database.

The annual 50-state survey of Medicaid officials finds an improved economy combined with the implementation of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit has contributed to the lowest rate of Medicaid spending growth in a decade and the fourth consecutive year in which Medicaid spending growth has slowed. Review the news release, read the report, or listen to conference materials and view the presentation slides.

This site offers a unique mix of quantitative and qualitative policy information to assist advocates, researchers, and policymakers interested in improving implementation of federal workforce policies. Data is presented in state by state summaries and interactive databases for Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Pell Grants, Perkins Vocational & Technical Education, Adult Education & Family Literacy, and Wagner-Peyser/Employment Service programs.