2001 Real Choice for Systems Change Grants
IOWA
Grant Information
- Name of Grantee
- Iowa Department of Human Services, Division of MH/DD
- Title of Grant
- Iowa's Real Choice Program
- Type of Grant
- Real Choice Systems Change
- Amount of Grant
- $1,025,000
- Year Original Funding Received
- 2001
- Amount of Supplemental Grant
- $360,000
- Supplemental Award Received
- 2002
Contact Information
Jim Overland, Project Director
515–281–8908
joverla@dhs.state.ia.us
Lila P. M. Starr, Olmstead Coordinator and Adult Mental Health Specialist
Hoover State Office Building
1305 E Walnut, 5th Floor
Des Moines, IA 50319–0114
515–281–7270
lstarr@dhs.state.ia.us
www.dhs.state.ia.us
Subcontractor(s)
University of Iowa, Center for Disabilities and Development, Iowa City, IA
Primary Contact Person: Bob Bacon, Director, Iowa's University Center for Excellence on Disabilities.
Target Population(s)
Persons with disabilities and long-term illnesses currently living in institutional settings and those at risk of entering institutions.
Goals
- Move the disability services system away from the traditional medical model of evaluation and placement of individuals toward a system that is driven by meaningful and informed consumer choices and is responsive to consumer-identified needs.
- Develop and provide coordinated transition and community support systems to facilitate movement from institutional to community settings and support individuals living in integrated community settings to avoid institutional placement.
- Design an individualized, consumer-centered process to assess individual preferences and abilities that will allow consumers to make informed choices about their living environment, the services they receive, the types of support they use, and the manner in which services are provided and funded.
Activities
- Identify systems for identification of all persons with disabilities currently living in institutional settings and those at risk of entering institutions.
- Identify and train Community Living Specialists to assist consumers with transition activities and support them in community living.
- Develop an evaluation process to monitor systems change efforts.
- Develop and implement an individualized assessment tool and process that identifies strengths and barriers and emphasizes personal choice and preferences.
- Provide information to individuals with disabilities and long-term illnesses to assist them in accessing needed resources, services, and supports in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs and consistent with their preferences, including information on individual rights, self-advocacy, and appeal rights.
- Provide information to parents and other family members, guardians, and direct service staff on the service system and living options, individual rights, informed choice, advocacy, and appeal rights.
- Provide information and training to service providers, service coordinators, medical professionals, and policy makers.
- Identify and pursue needed policy changes to increase the flexibility of and simplify access to disability-related services and funding.
- Establish an information and referral system to assist individuals to access services and supports before they are at imminent risk of institutionalization.
- Establish and implement a coordinated system of transition services and community-based supports for individuals accessing less restrictive living options.
- Establish and implement a coordinated system of crisis prevention and intervention services to prevent unnecessary institutional admissions.
Abstract
The grant will be used to develop and improve community support systems by establishing a flexible, consumer-centered, individual assessment process emphasizing consumer preferences and by developing a coordinated system of transition and community support services.
The project will use the expertise and experiences of numerous state agencies, local governments and providers, consumers and their family members, and advocates of the disability system as part of The Oversight and Implementation Committee for the Iowa Plan for Community Development. A steering committee was developed in January of 2001. The "Olmstead Real Choices Consumer Taskforce," as it has been known since a name change in 2002, has been operational since June of 2001 and has been involved in development of the original and amended grant applications. More than 50 percent of the membership is made up of people with disabilities who are also consumers of disability-related services or family members of adults and children with disabilities.