Promising practices

Connecticut is operating a state-funded home and community based services pilot program to help adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) gain the skills to become contributing members of the workforce. The program serves people with ASD who do not qualify for the State’s Medicaid home and community-based services waivers. This pilot program targets individuals who need continued supports to pursue employment opportunities and improve their independent living.

Two multi-county regions in California established one-stop clinics to diagnose autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and coordinate service planning across the education and developmental disabilities systems. Both regions also established ongoing collaborative teams to coordinate supports and improve the local service system for children with ASD. An evaluation reported a four-month reduction in the average age of ASD diagnosis.

This plan describes fundamental changes that states have implemented and found effective in controlling the public costs of long-term care while insuring that people receive quality services of the type, and in the settings, that they choose.

South Carolina hired an environmental modifications specialist to improve the quality of home modifications funded by its Medicaid HCBS waivers. The specialist trains case managers to develop specifications for ramps, and develops specifications for other home modifications so contractors can quickly make an informed bid. South Carolina also leveraged a state-funded home modification program to expand the types of modifications available in its waivers.

This report provides an overview of 35 states’ initiatives to improve their LTC systems and includes lessons learned and recommendations that can guide states undertaking similar initiatives. Despite accomplishments and improvements, Grantees described continuing barriers including insufficient funding for home and community services; workforce shortages; lack of affordable and accessible housing and transportation; and outdated or inflexible administrative, statutory, and regulatory provisions.

This study was conducted as part of the Nebraska Nursing Facility Transition (NFT) Grant. The target population included children living in nursing facilities who meet the criteria for transition to home and community-based settings and children living at home identified as at-risk for nursing facility placement. The goals of this paper were to decrease the number of children in nursing facilities, identify risk factors, and to develop a plan to keep children in home and community settings.

In laying the groundwork for sustainable improvements in the infrastructure for LTC policy and program implementation, Massachusetts Real Choice grantees conducted an assessment of current Service Coordination practices across State agencies. The research objective was to better understand present service coordination practices among agencies dealing with elderly and individuals with disabilities with the intention of identifying “promising practices”. This report presents the review results.

These reports are reviews of Utah’s long–term care system and waiver programs and provide recommendations for change. The Focus Group Findings focused on non-institutionalized and community based settings. The Long-Term Care paper provides more generalized findings about the structure of Utah’s long-term care system and how to transition forward based on input from stakeholders and administrators, comparisons to other states, and review of current documents and policy.

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.

Special Needs Plans (SNPs), authorized by the Medicare Modernization Act, offer state Medicaid programs a new potential vehicle for coordinating Medicare and Medicaid benefits for dual eligibles. This report investigates the degree to which states (and plans) are using this option to develop more fully integrated Medicare-Medicaid models for dual eligibles needing long-term care services.