Promising practices

ACL, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) have published new resources to help states, vaccination providers, and others leading COVID-19 response activities improve access to vaccines for people with disabilities and older adults. These resources clarify legal requirements, explain barriers to vaccine access and provide examples of how the aging and disability network can help increase access.

APS TARC recently released an issue brief to address approaches and benefits to quality assurance (QA) as well as considerations in developing a QA program. The brief describes the QA process for documentation, supervisor review and approval, case reading, performance management, and program evaluation. Additionally, the brief provides explanations in who to include in establishing a QA process, why it is important to conduct a QA process, what should be reviewed, and other questions.

The purpose of this Guide is to assist State, Tribal, and Territory human service systems to fully and effectively including people who receive services in system planning and improvement efforts. It is relevant for all systems that support older adults and people with disabilities. This guide was originally developed as part of technical assistance activities through the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS)

This case study examines the benefits of coordinating care for dually eligible members with serious mental illness. It looks specifically at how one Pennsylvania plan used a robust care coordination and member engagement model to successfully reduce urgent and unplanned inpatient admissions; and optimize health outcomes, quality of life, and self-management skills for individuals with serious mental illness.

This case study explores how health plans can help rebalance LTSS for dually eligible members. It looks at two California health plans who successfully transitioned dually eligible members from institutional to community settings. The case study uses these two examples to identify key elements for supporting dually eligible individuals with LTSS needs during the transition to living in the community.

This new report from ASPE and HUD examines the Support And Services at Home (SASH) program from 2010-2016. The SASH program uses affordable housing properties as a method for delivering services to older adults and individuals with disabilities living in Vermont. The study used a mixed-methods evaluation to examine the effects of the SASH program on health care utilization outcomes, Medicaid expenditures, and Medicare expansion.

These profiles include promising practices that agencies use to conduct education and outreach to inform consumers about benefits, and to help aging and disability professionals connect clients to benefits, such as the Medicare low-income subsidies, SNAP, and LIHEAP. The tip sheets include practices about: engaging consumers through fun and interactive games; a system for providing comprehensive eligibility information; and tools to simplify benefits information for staff.

This bulletin examines the West Virginia Youth Works intervention, which was funded as part of the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD). This specific program was one of the six sites examined in the Social Security Administration's full YTD evaluation. This bulletin evaluates the effects of the Youth Works program and serves as a potential case study for other states interested in expanding services to youths with disabilities.

This report explores the limited availability of supported employment despite the research demonstrating its success. It then presents strategies utilized by states when they expanded supported employment under settlement agreements; practical perspectives from employers, providers, and service users; and valuable lessons learned over the past decade. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for ensuring that supported employment is widely available.

This study reviews literature on fall risk factors and prevention strategies. It uses peer-reviewed research from between 1994 and 2017 to estimate the number of medically treated falls that could be prevented and the direct medical costs that could be adverted. The estimates were created by looking specifically at evidence-based fall interventions in clinical settings.