Promising practices

The State of Michigan combined several funding sources in its contracts with local community mental health agencies, which serve people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, and addiction disorders. To ensure access and improve choice, the contracts require local agencies offer a wide array of services and use a person-centered planning process to determine a person’s service plan. In the first two years of using this model, access to services improved and costs were reduced.

Teleconference presentation by Susan Flnagan on Workers Compensation \"best practices\" for personal assistants. The topic is Accessing Workers’ Compensation Insurance For Individuals Participating In Self-directed Support Service Programs: A National Review.

This report describes a recruitment effort lead by the Metro Region of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation (DMR). DMR and provider agencies, in collaboration with a communications company, conducted a marketing campaign to recruit direct support professionals. The report highlights the implementation and impact of the project.

This report documents the state of Massachusetts’ attempt to develop a central registry for accessible housing that includes public housing, privately operated subsidized housing, and private market-rate developments. People with disabilities can access the registry on the Internet and by contacting the state’s Centers for Independent Living. This report provides a description of the program.

This report describes the Cooperative Healthcare Network. This national group of affiliated long-term care providers and training organizations, uses a standardized recruitment approach to attract and retain high quality direct service professionals through a targeted outreach and rigorous application process.

This document describes the program established by the United Cerebral Palsy of Texas and its partners to increase housing and homeownership opportunities for people with disabilities in 1995. The report explains the Texas Home of Your Own Coalition and how it brings together people and organizations with a broad range of expertise and experience in disability advocacy and in fields associated with homeownership.

This document describes Legacy Express, a program in Georgia which attempts to improve the quality of services provided to older Americans and their caregivers. Legacy Express provides vouchers to caregivers which may be spent on service options. The objective is to give caregivers the authority and flexibility to select those service options that work best for them. This program’s implementation and impact is explained in the document.

A home and community-based services program in Ohio is using electronic communication between case managers and providers to streamline identification of service providers for program participants. Program staff have found electronic communication greatly reduces the time required to find available providers when compared with telephone or fax communication. This report explores the interventions, implications, and impact of using electronic communication.

A pilot project in southeastern Minnesota has developed a quality assurance approach that focuses on matters important to people receiving supports and their families and provides a means of quality improvement, as opposed to licensing minimum standards. This report is based on an independent evaluation of the project, which used extensive interviews, focus groups and reviews of written materials and project files. The report provides intervention, implementation, and impact information.

This report describes Rhode Island’s Project Bridge, which provides services for HIV-positive ex-offenders ranging from rides to medical appointments to assistance addressing legal, housing, substance abuse, and other problems. The report discusses the implementation and impact of the program.