Real Choice Systems Change

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

Completed

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

http://www.dhs.state.ia.us

Subcontractor(s)

Bob Bacon, Director
Center for Excellence on Disabilities
University of Iowa, Center for Disabilities and Development
Iowa City, IA

Target Population(s)

All individuals with disabilities, including persons with developmental and/or other disabilities, individuals with chronic mental illness, and people who are elderly—all at risk of institutionalization, but who could live in the community with appropriate supports.

Goals

  • Prevent institutionalization of people who are elderly and people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, or other disabilities by developing a coordinated system of community supports and transition services that make living in the community possible.
  • Increase consumer choice in identifying and securing community supports and services for those who could live more successfully in the community with appropriate supports.
  • Facilitate development of a broader range of individualized services for persons with disabilities in Iowa and stronger linkages for information about those services.

Activities

  • Obtain stakeholder commitment for the Real Choices project, including an Executive Order from the Governor to promote community living options.
  • Compile descriptive data (e.g., occupancy rates, length of stay, acuity levels) about Iowans with disabilities and elderly Iowans living in institutional settings to develop an aggregate analysis of placement appropriateness.
  • Identify and prioritize policy barriers to community living and strategies for overcoming them.
  • Develop a comprehensive screening and assessment process that prevents unnecessary, premature, or inappropriate institutionalization and assists consumers in identifying the supports and services necessary for community living. The process would also continue subsequent to initially necessary institutionalization to ensure the individual could be returned to their community should this become possible.
  • Provide individuals with disabilities, family members, providers, policy makers, and other stakeholders with information to enable consumers to make choices on accessing needed resources, services, and supports in the community.
  • Develop knowledge and skills in individuals with disabilities, family members, providers, policy makers, and other stakeholders so they can implement self-direction in Iowa's HCBS waiver programs.
  • Evaluate the success of the Real Choices project using parameters approved by the Olmstead Real Choices Consumer Taskforce and the Department of Human Services.

Abstract

The grant will be used to develop and improve community support systems by establishing a flexible, consumer-centered, individual assessment process that will assist in preventing inappropriate institutionalization. The grant will also increase consumer choice and flexibility in Iowa's HCBS system by adding self-direction to all six of Iowa's waivers and contributing to the development of the infrastructure needed to implement it. Access to community services will be enhanced through improvements to Iowa's statewide information and referral system. Supporting all these efforts is implementation of an Executive Order from Iowa's Governor relating to Olmstead that calls upon all state agencies to identify and remove barriers to community living faced by Iowans with disabilities and their families.

The project will draw on the expertise and experiences of numerous state agencies, local governments and providers, consumers and their family members, and advocates of the disability system. The project is guided by the "Olmstead Real Choices Consumer Taskforce," which has been operational since June 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.