Survey Description and Timeline

Minnesota's Department of Human Services, Aging and Adult Services, will be conducting a Consumer Experience Survey of 600 Elderly Waiver clients as part of the Real Choice grant in the spring of 2005. The survey tool was developed by combining elements from the CMS survey tools for elders and people with disabilities, Minnesota's Survey of Older Minnesotans, and Minnesota's nursing home quality of life survey. Piloted with 90 EW clients in fall, 2004, the current version also reflects that experience and feedback from the Quality Design Commission members, a consumer group created under Minnesota's 2001 Real Choice grant. The survey instrument is designed to discover the types of help people need to stay in their home, whether or not they are getting that help, and how satisfied they are with their help and quality of life. The survey will be conducted as an in-person interview in the client's home, and will be done by volunteers from Minnesota's Office of the Ombudsman for Older Minnesotans. All interviews will be completed by the end of June, and we hope to have preliminary results by mid-August. We have faced several challenges in surveying this population. Of the 600 Elderly Waiver clients in the sample as of February 2005, 45 are no longer on EW for a variety of reasons, primarily nursing home admissions. Roughly 9% of the sample is non-English speaking. Issues around translation and cultural sensitivity still have to be worked out. We do not intend on using family members as translators, since this option was not recommended by the Quality Design Commission. Roughly an additional 10% of the sample has moderate to severe dementia, as indicated by their case managers. Minnesota will develop a \"mini-pilot\" to interview caregivers or guardians as a proxy for those we feel are not cognitively able to answer the questions in the survey accurately. Hearing and visual impairments may also complicate the interview process, but the extent of this complication is currently unknown. Generally speaking, this project is making significant progress, and we are working through the expected and unexpected challenges as they appear. Several counties have indicated an interest in using the survey locally as well.