Systems Transformation Grants

SOUTH CAROLINA

Grant Information

Name of Grantee

Lieutenant Governor's Office on Aging (LGOA)

Title of Grant

Links for Community Options

Type of Grant

Real Choice Systems Transformation Grant

Amount of Grant

$2,971,779

Year Original Funding Received

2005

Contact Information

Barbara Kelley, Deputy Director
Lt. Governor's Office on Aging
1301 Gervais Street, Suite 200
Columbia, SC 29201
803-734-9899
kelleyb@aging.sc.gov

Subcontractor(s)

South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Lower Savannah Council of Governments
Appalachia Council of Governments
Santee Lynches Council of Governments
Susan Reinhard, Ph.D., R.N., Rutgers Center for State Health Policy
University of South Carolina Center for Health Services and Policy Research (USC CHSPR)
University of South Carolina Institute for Public Policy Survey Research Laboratory (SRL)

Target Population(s)

Older adults and adults with physical and/or developmental disabilities.

Goals

  • Improved access to long-term support services: development of one-stop 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

  • Expand the Lower Savannah Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) target group to serve adults with developmental disabilities/mental retardation and to include four additional counties.
  • Establish ADRCs in two additional regions: Appalachia and Santee-Lynches.
  • Link consumers with transportation needed to access other long-term supports in the community in Lower Savannah.
  • Reduce duplicative intakes to decrease consumer burden and increase staff efficiency.
  • Design and implement protocols in the Lower Savannah region for providing short-term interim assistance to seniors and adults with physical disabilities awaiting Community Long-Term Care (CLTC) services identified as being at high risk of institutionalization or re-hospitalization.
  • Engage key stakeholders in the strategic planning process to review strategies and set common priorities for IT development that are mutually valuable and feasible.
  • Streamline and simplify access to transportation services by creating a process for assisting individual consumers with transportation needs, locating resources, tracking services rendered, and coordinating local resources through a Mobility, Information, Assistance, and Management Center.
  • Develop software for SC Access to maintain accounts for consumers that include basic application information.
  • Develop and implement a methodology for prioritizing seniors and adults with physical disabilities who are interested in receiving services from CLTC's Community Choices waiver.
  • Develop a model one-stop/call Mobility, Information, Assistance, and Management Center in the Lower Savannah region to enhance consumers' access to community services and resources by better meeting their transportation needs.

Abstract

The grant will empower and support older adults and adults with disabilities living in the community through streamlined access to services and increased consumer choice. South Carolina will expand activities of the current ADRC to develop additional linkages to simplify the application processes and reduce duplicative intake; expand the ADRC target group to encompass adults with developmental disabilities and to include four additional counties; design a short-term interim assistance component for the current ADRC; integrate a transportation one-stop/call Mobility; Information, Assistance, and Management Center into the Lower Savannah ADRC; and apply lessons learned from the implementation of the current ADRC to establish new ADRCs in two other regions. The grant will also develop the technology to support consumer-oriented transportation access, install mobile data terminals (MDT) and global positioning satellite units (GPS) in area vehicles participating in the project to allow for real-time vehicle scheduling and dispatching, and expand the SC Access Information Web site to incorporate information on transportation resources. Finally, South Carolina will develop a methodology for prioritizing the list of individuals who are interested in receiving the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver to promote more efficient utilization of funding.