WASHINGTON
Grant Information
- Name of Grantee
- Department of Social and Health Services
- Title of Grant
- Community Living Initiative
- Type of Grant
- Real Choice Systems Change
- Amount of Grant
- $1,385,000
- Year Original Funding Received
- 2002
Contact Information
Cathy Cochran
Real Choice Administrator/Olmstead Coordinator
Department of Social and Health Services
P.O. Box 45060
Olympia, WA 98504–5060
360–902–8271
cochrca@dshs.wa.gov
Subcontractor(s)
None at this time.
Target Population(s)
Individuals with disabilities served by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).
Goals
- Enhance skills needed for self–directed care and community living for individuals with disabilities, caregivers, and case management staff.
- Improve coordination of services and transition to community living by developing and implementing cross–system case management coordination models.
- Increase consumer–directed service payment options such as vouchers or cash and counseling through development of consumer assessment tools and necessary automation.
Activities
- Develop materials for education and training to teach self–directed services through locally planned and sponsored forums, including consumers and families of individuals with developmental disabilities.
- Provide a Community Living Conference for 500 consumers, families, staff, caregivers, and advocates to share information, training, and solutions to community living issues.
- Support discharge and transition processes for long–term psychiatric hospital residents who can appropriately live in community settings by coordinating services and increasing community options.
- Replicate successful models of case management coordination for individuals with multiple disabilities most at risk for institutionalization through development of criteria and evaluation tools.
- Provide consumer–directed service payment options such as vouchers or cash and counseling by developing a community–based case mix payment model as the foundation.
- Create a quality assurance, outcome measurement tool that will be integrated with the new automated assessment tool funded by DSHS.
Abstract
The Real Choice Systems Change Grant in Washington State will allow for the development of educational materials and training to enhance skills for individuals with disabilities to self–direct services. Consumers, families, providers, and others will share information developed by the grant, along with training opportunities, at a Community Living Conference for 500 in 2004. The materials from the conference will also be made available for those who cannot attend, and distributed to local agencies and providers for wider consumer access.
On a larger systems level, criteria and evaluation tools will be developed for cross–systems case management coordination models. Teams of multidisciplinary agencies in the community, along with consumers and families, will define successes and challenges with transitions to community living. This will include the coordination of multiple social and health systems to support individuals with disabilities to live in the community. Additionally, the grant will provide assistance with transition from state psychiatric hospitals and the appropriate system changes to increase community living options.
Consumer–directed services payment options, such as vouchers and cash and counseling methods, are systems changes that will result from the development of a community based case mix payment model, more accurately reflecting the care needs of individual consumers. Further, the Real Choice grant will fund the development of a quality assurance, outcome measurement tool that is vital to the development of a consumer–directed service delivery model.