Consumer/Participant Direction

For the last two years, WV Real Choice has worked in collaboration with other agencies and organizations to create improvements in long term support systems so persons with disabilities and/or long term illnesses can make their own choices and have the necessary supports to live and work in their communities. Attached are the program's community outreach materials such as brochures, flyers, postcards and previous and current conferences advertising materials.

Although consumer direction is a growing trend in publicly supported HCBS programs across the states, we know relatively little about how this approach is implemented in the states. This national study aims to describe the role of consumer direction in publicly funded family caregiver support services and HCBS programs with a family caregiving component. This report addresses three questions with the intent of informing policy discussions.

State policy makers and consumer advocates are advancing programs and policies to support community living for all individuals. Operationalizing principles of “self direction,” “consumer direction,” or “participant direction” entails many details. This State Policy in Practice technical assistance document offers concrete information and specific state examples on ways to implement participant-directed planning and individualized budgeting.

A key component of consumer-direction includes methods to ensure that essential supports are provided. This State Policy in Practice technical assistance document offers a practical example from the State of South Carolina. Care Call is a system developed to help South Carolina monitor service delivery provided though South Carolina Choice, an Independence Plus waiver that enables self-direction, and its other traditional home and community-based services (HCBS) waiver programs.

Under Independence Plus Medicaid programs, states must assure that necessary safeguards have been taken to protect the health and welfare of persons receiving services. A key component of participant-direction includes individualized backup planning to ensure that essential supports are available in situations that pose a risk of harm to the participants. These examples are instructive to other states that are considering Independence Plus applications.

This report describes the FY 2002 and FY 2003 Grantees’ challenges and progress using information provided by the Grantees during the reporting period October 1, 2003 to September 30, 2004. The report describes grant activities in four major LTC systems areas: Access to Long-Term Care Services and Supports, Services, Supports, and Housing, Administrative and Monitoring Infrastructure and Long-Term Care Service and Support Workforce

Recovery is the focus of the just released July/August 2005 issue of the SAMHSA/CMHS publication \"Mental Health Transformation Trends\". It includes articles on the following: + Recovery is Happening + State Profile: Ohio Finds Transformation Requires Shared Leadership and Capacity for Change + Federal Partner Spotlight: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services + Consensus on Recovery Achieved + Self-Direction: Consumer Choice in Action

This paper assesses the effect of consumer-directed care on the emotional, physical, and financial well-being of the primary informal caregivers of the Medicaid beneficiaries who voluntarily joined Arkansas's Cash and Counseling demonstration. The implications of the demonstration find that permitting interested Medicaid beneficiaries to direct their own in-home supportive services reduces burden on informal caregivers, which may help reduce beneficiaries' nursing home use.

Over the last decade states have made committed efforts to support individuals living at home with families. One example is the Illinois Home Based Support Services Program (HBSSP) which is a model consumer-directed program for adults with developmental disabilities and their families. This program families with an individualized budget of approximately $1,500 per month to design and direct supports. This paper evaluates the model and answers questions about service utilization.

This Congressional briefing examined the \"Cash and Counseling\" program, which provides an individualized allowance that Medicaid beneficiaries can use to hire a personal care assistant of their choice - often a family caregiver - or purchase items that help them live independently, such as chair lifts. As policymakers look to the future, what are the lessons learned from the first phase of the cash and counseling program?