Promising practices

Despite decades of increases in program participation and spending, the disability support infrastructure in the United States and the economic independence of people with disabilities have eroded. Rather than tighten eligibility or reduce program benefits, this issue brief proposes gradual programmatic reforms and evidence-based structural changes to improve the economic status of Americans with disabilities.

The care transitions challenge aims to stimulate the use of simple, information technology-enabled processes and tools to make transitions easier and safer for patients, caregivers and providers, particularly when a patient is discharged from a hospital. The first health IT challenge, Ensuring Safe Transitions from Hospital to Home, called upon developers to create a web-based application that could empower patients and caregivers to better navigate and manage a transition from a hospital.

These Guiding Principles were developed to help to preserve the rights of individuals under participant direction, no matter what form or model, if and when workers choose to form a union. The NRCPDS cover letter, Guiding Principles, and NRCPDS Director Kevin Mahoney's signing ceremony remarks are available here.

The number of older adult drivers with dementia is increasing—and with it, so too must our understanding of the day-to-day experiences of older drivers with dementia, their functional abilities and the transportation options best suited to them. This research-to-practice article provides insight into current knowledge about the transition from driving for older adults with dementia.

In one stop, use this national resource to find important information regarding assisted living. Resources include research findings and outcomes, exemplary assisted living practices, measures, and public policies and programs, consumer materials, links to relevant websites, international documents and abstracts, media articles, training and education materials, expert opinion pieces, and more.

The Indiana Medicaid Infrastructure Grant’s (MIG) Asset Development/Financial Literacy Project is developing a Financial Stability Pilot to engage people with disabilities in financial literacy and asset development programs. The two main goals of the program are to increase the number of individuals with disabilities who are able to access and benefit from asset development and increase collaboration amongst the asset building and disability fields. Use the attachments to learn more.

Workforce boards, job development centers, and community colleges across the country are recognizing affordable, reliable and accessible transportation as being vital to their individual and business customers' success, and they are taking steps to make transportation happen. Visit the links from this site for a sampling of the strategies these workforce development professionals are putting into action.

An exciting new trend in community mental health services is the increasing use of "Peer Specialists" on treatment teams serving people with mental illness. Peer Specialists use their own recovery experiences, along with specialized mental health training, to provide services that are strengths based and recovery oriented. To learn more, explore the attached presentation, article, and mentoring plan.

As of September 2010, Benefits Enrollment Centers have submitted over 125,000 applications for a variety of public benefits including the Medicare Part D Extra Help/Low-Income Subsidy (LIS), the Medicare Savings Programs, Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP - formerly known as Food Stamps), the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, among others. To learn more about these efforts, outcomes, and lessons learned please see the attached report.

The percentage of individuals with disabilities in the federal government has not increased since 1994, according to this report. Read highlights of a forum where participants, by prioritizing practices offered by subject matter experts, identified eight steps that agencies could take to help the federal government become a model employer for people with disabilities.