Systems Transformation Grants

KANSAS

Grant Information

Name of Grantee

Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services

Title of Grant

Transforming the Kansas Long-Term Care System

Type of Grant

Real Choice Systems Transformation Grant

Amount of Grant

$2,198,629

Year Original Funding Received

2006

Contact Information

Michelle Ponce, Project Director
Docking State Office Building
915 SW Harrison
Topeka, KS 66612-1570
785-296-3271
Mponce@srskansas.org

Subcontractor(s)

The Self-Help Network of Kansas, Wichita State University, evaluator
Melissa Ness, Connections Unlimited, facilitator

Target Population(s)

Individuals of all ages with long-term support needs.

Goals

  • Increased choice and control: enhancement of self-directed service delivery system.
  • Transformation of information technology (IT) to support systems change.
  • Creation of a system that more effectively manages the funding for long-term supports that promote community living options.

Activities

  • Enhance person-centered planning across all disability fields and waiver services so they become consumer controlled, strength based, and outcomes focused.
  • Develop and implement person-centered plans (PCPs) that will not require professional services to interpret.
  • Identify state-of-the-art PCPs, train the appropriate stakeholders, and build the capacity for continued improvement in the PCP process so that it results in improved outcomes.
  • Create training programs (face-to-face or online) and field-test them with policy leaders, practitioners, and consumers in each of the five stakeholder groups (developmental disability, physical disability, mental health, brain injury, and aging).
  • Develop peer-to-peer networks statewide with self-advocacy/consumer-controlled organizations to provide orientation, support, and training to individuals and families.
  • Consider amending statutes, regulations, and definitions to establish universal definitions for services across all waivers.
  • Establish individual budgeting (based on the PCP) for identified services within the Physical Disabilities (PD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD) waivers.
  • Continue the work of the K-PASS (Kansas Personal Assistance Supports and Services) to support persons choosing to self-direct by providing ongoing education and resources.
  • Ensure that stakeholders inform the state waiver operating agencies (SWOAs) on what is needed to empower persons with disabilities to develop individual budget control and develop peer-to-peer support networks to provide support for people controlling their individual budgets.
  • Ensure that stakeholders work with SWOAs to establish policies and procedures for fiscal intermediaries to aid individuals who choose to direct their own services.
  • Increase the success rates of persons who choose to self-direct through participant-employer arrangements.
  • Create a single data-based quality management system across the Kansas Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver.
  • Assess whether the IT application practices of Kansas are consistent with participant-centered principles.
  • Expand and broaden routine processes, based on the IT assessment, to ensure a statewide virtual resource center that is available to all participants needing access to long-term care (LTC) information, services, and supports.
  • Expand and broaden current IT applications to provide ongoing outcomes measures.
  • Develop performance-incentive payment methodologies that weigh payment for MR/DD residential and day services based on the level of independent living.

Abstract

This project seeks to promote community living for Kansans of all ages with LTC support needs by continuing and building upon the achievements of previous New Freedom grants awarded to Kansas. The project's primary goal is to encourage community living options by enhancing consumer control and direction through a coordinated service delivery system.