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The National Paralysis Resource Center has launched a new partnership with Kakana, an accessible fitness platform, to offer free adaptive fitness opportunities to people living with paralysis. Kakana is designed to provide inclusive and accessible workouts for individuals of all abilities and includes fitness instructors with disabilities to guide the sessions.

The National Paralysis Resource Center has launched a virtual support group program for people living with paralysis and their family members or caregivers. The support groups provide an opportunity for members to connect with eachother to gain support, insight, and guidance. The meetings are led by mental health professionals and welcome disucssion about any issues or concerns members are experiencing and topics they want to learn about. Two meetings are offered every month for people living with paraplegia, quadriplegia, and family members or caregivers.

States are often exploring ways to effectively support direct care workers, who are often times women, people of color, and living at or near the poverty level. This blog post explores four key recommendations for states to strengthen their direct care workforce, with an emphasis on state Medicaid agencies. The post draws from a CHCS report which focused on strategies used in the state of Michigan.

The Center on Youth Voice, Youth Choice is a national youth resource center that supports alternatives to guardianship through research, self-advocacy, outreach, coalition building and education. The Community of Practice will discuss best practices, support long-term change, and help elevate the voices of youth leaders in this work. Applications to join this network are now being accepted.

ACL has summarized the CDC's latest COVID-19 vaccination and booster reccomendations on their resources page. The webpage includes a section of resources for the Aging and Disability Networks and guidance for people who are immunocompromised.

ACL is introducing a new blog feature intended to keep the aging and disabilities networks up to date about new policies. Visit their blog page to read about the latest policy advancements in the field.

CMS Office of Minority Health is recognizing National Immunization Awareness month by providing immunization and vaccine resources on their website. The site houses shareable information about available, low cost vaccines, Medicare coverage for vaccines, COVID-19 resources, and more.

On August 3, 2021 CMS published a proposed rule that would rescind a 2019 policy change prohibiting reassignment of certain Medicaid payments. The rule would re-instate a policy that was first established in 2014 allowing payments to third parties when Medicaid program is the primary source of revenue for the provider. CMS is accepting comment on the proposed rule until September 28, 2021.

This Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on HCBS focuses on person-centered service delivery and outcomes measurement that inform the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of federal and state home and community-based programs, policies, and interventions.

In this episode of the Medicaid Leadership Exchange podcast series, Ivory Banks, chief of staff at the Department of Medical Assistance Services, Commonwealth of Virginia, and Marlia Mattke, assistant administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, share their successes and challenges in pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that better support staff of color in Medicaid agencies.