Reports

This guide is designed to provide states and programs involved in consumer-directed services with a practical handbook on ensuring and improving the quality of services. This guide is based on a philosophy that the views of the major program stakeholders – consumers, families, program staff, regulators, funders – are the necessary starting point for the design of a quality system.

Executive Summary of the 1999 Summit of Mental Health Consumers in which they developed consensus around the issues of greatest concern to consumers and survivors and created action a platform for future work.

In response to the growing demand for self-directed services, state developmental disabilities agencies have begun to use individual budgets as a cornerstone of their efforts to help persons with disabilities to gain control over their lives. While interest in this subject is strong, until now very little comparative information has been available. To address this, NASDDDS is pleased to announce the report Having It Your Way: Understanding State Individual Budgeting Strategies.

This report addresses the liability issues that may arise in government-sponsored consumer-directed personal assistance programs. The report focuses on Cash & Counseling Demonstration programs in AR, FL & NJ, In-Home Supportive Services Program in CA & Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program in NY. The reports purpose: first, identify circumstances where negligence could result in liability and what persons are likely to be liable; second, identify steps to reduce exposure to liability.

Medicaid beneficiaries who have disabilities and receive personal care services (PCS) from home care agencies have little control over their care. As a result, some are dissatisfied, have unmet needs, and experience diminished quality of life. This study of Arkansas’s Cash and Counseling demonstration program, IndependentChoices, examines how consumer direction affects these aspects of care quality relative to agency-directed services

The report describes the design & implementation of Arkansas’ model of Cash & Counseling—IndependentChoices—and draws lessons from the state’s experience. The report is based on in-person interviews conducted with Arkansas state officials, IndependentChoices’ program staff, staff providing counseling and fiscal services under IndependentChoices, staff providing traditional PAS in Arkansas, and staff of advocate organizations. The summary also draw lessons for future Cash & Counseling programs.

This report describes the design and implementation of Personal Preference, New Jersey’s model of Cash and Counseling. It also draws lessons from the state’s experience. The report is based primarily on in-person interviews conducted in April 01, about 18 months after the program began enrolling beneficiaries (Nov 99).

The report presents twenty-seven case stories about the experience of adults with disabilities who receive the cash option in the IndependentChoices Program. The report focuses on how "care units," composed of consumers and/or representatives, paid workers, & counselors interacted around issues of consumer directed care. Stories were analyzed for cross-cutting topics & themes such as family context of care, the meaning of independence, & the community context of care emerged in the interviews.

In an effort to enhance marketing efforts and increase enrollment in the Cash & Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation (CCDE), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided funding to conduct qualitative research (focus groups). Participants included staff members whose agencies have contracts with the Florida Dept. of Elder Affairs & Florida Dept. of Children and Families to provide case management and personal care services to eligible elders and adults under age 65 with physical disabilities.

Families USA has released Medicaid: Good Medicine for State Economies predicting the impact state Medicaid spending will have on business activity, jobs, & wages in 2005. The report argues that extending the $10 billion in fiscal relief provided by Congress to the states last year, through enhanced Federal participation in Medicaid, through the end of fiscal year 2005 would help strengthen state economies by generating even more business activity, jobs,& wages. Includes data for every state.