Real Choice Systems Change

ALABAMA

Grant Information

Name of Grantee

Alabama Medicaid Agency, Long-Term Care Division

Title of Grant

Sweet Home Alabama: Under Construction

Type of Grant

Real Choice Systems Change

Amount of Grant

$2,000,000

Year Original Funding Received

2001

Completed

Contact Information

Marilyn Chappelle, Director
334-242-5009
mchappelle@medicaid.state.al.us

Hattie Nettles, Project Manager
Project Development/Program Support Unit
Long-Term Care Division
Alabama Medicaid Agency
501 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36103
334-242-5644
hnettles@medicaid.state.al.us

Subcontractor(s)

Alabama Department of Senior Services
Anne Coffin
334-242-5786

Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation
Anne Evans
334-242-3706

Volunteer and Information Center
Camilla Prince
334-264-4636

Governor's Office on Disability
Barbara Crozier
334-353-0355

Target Population(s)

Persons with disabilities regardless of age or type of disability.

Goals

  • Enhance access to home and community based services through improved information dissemination and service coordination.
  • Create and expand systemwide opportunities for consumer choice and control over home and community based services.
  • Expand resources for home and community based services through effective planning, advocacy, and education.

Activities

  • Develop a community-based information and referral clearinghouse through collaborative public/private partnerships.
  • Develop and implement a required Service Coordination Core Training Module to cross-train Medicaid service coordinators in basic competencies and information.
  • Complete and implement recommendations from a comprehensive study of the feasibility of a single point of entry and/or coordination for home and community based services.
  • Train, implement, mentor, and support person-centered planning for consumers with developmental disabilities.
  • Establish infrastructure for consumer input for consumers with mental retardation and/or developmental disabilities.
  • Expand the Psychiatric Rehabilitation model to all community mental health centers and all units of state hospitals over a 3-year period.
  • Develop, implement, and evaluate a person-centered assessment tool and process as a basis for a consumer-directed system of senior services.
  • Establish a permanent Disability/Aging Policy Advisory Group within the Medicaid Agency's Long-Term Care Division to formalize the mechanisms for ongoing consumer input and enhanced coordination of services.
  • Develop advocacy and informational materials to educate consumers and family members, policymakers, and others regarding the State's Olmstead Plan.
  • Establish an Outreach and Education Unit within the Medicaid Agency's Long-Term Care Division.

Abstract

Our proposal was developed in conjunction with the State's Olmstead planning process. This process is comprehensive, addressing the needs of people with disabilities and their families regardless of age or type of disability. It is also consumer-based, substantially involving people with disabilities and family members in planning and decision making. The Olmstead Core Workgroup is a 40-member group, comprising state agencies, advocates, providers, and consumers and family members, with the Alabama Medicaid Agency serving as lead agency.

The Workgroup has drafted a unifying theme as a title for the Olmstead plan, designed to catch the imagination of the state's citizenry and policy makers: Sweet Home Alabama: Under Construction. It is an apt metaphor for the work we must do to build a cohesive system of supports that is predicated on community, real choice, and consumer direction. The architects of the proposed systems changes are its stakeholders, with special emphasis on the substantial and meaningful participation of people with disabilities and family members. The proposed grant activities are our building blocks, targeted to achieve enduring systems change in three areas: access, consumer choice/control, and expanded resources for home and community based services.