2003 Annual Meeting
November 12-14, 2003
Pathways to Excellence:
Achieving System-Wide Strategic Goals Together
Meeting Presentations
All of the presentation files are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat
Reader. To view a presentation file, click on the appropriate PDF icon (
).
PLENARY ADDRESS I:
Presenter: Nancy Thaler; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, formerly Pennsylvania Office of Mental Retardation
Thaler (324 K)
Ms. Thaler wove together the major themes of the strategic plan and commented on the opportunities and challenges attendant to achieving these system change goals within the present public policy environment.
PLENARY ADDRESS II:
Presenter: David Pitonyak, Imagine
Loneliness is the only real disability: Implications and Recommendations for Policymakers. (Hyperlink redirects you to the Articles and Publications page of Dr. Pitonyak's Imagine Web site. Scroll down to the presentation. Presentations are in alphabetical order.)
Dr. Pitonyak drew on his experience consulting on positive approaches to difficult behaviors to highlight the role that each of the major goals of the strategic plan plays in accomplishing one - supporting people with multiple and complex needs.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS:
Supporting Individuals and Families as Employers
Presenter: Jeffrey Keilson
Keilson (2,342 K)
Blackham: Utah Materials (1,207 K)
As more and more states are supporting consumers as employers, people with disabilities and their families are finding that they may need assistance in recruitment and retention of direct support staff. In this session, information about state initiatives was shared, including a new Web-based program created for residents in Massachusetts and Connecticut that will assist elders and persons with disabilities and their families in recruiting and hiring their own staff. Lessons and tools from Utah 's experiences with its Self-Administered Model (SAM), and from Kansas ' long-term efforts with self-directed services were explored, as well. This session also included a discussion around identifying issues and sharing solutions in supporting people with disabilities and their families in being successful employers.
Designing and Implementing Responsive Rate Structures for Providers
Presenter: Norm Davis
Davis (2,329 K)
Mr. Davis explored Florida 's recent implementation of a standardized rate structure for its providers of home and community-based waiver services as part of its overall system redesign. He also discussed similar efforts in Kentucky .
Building a System of Crisis Services and Supports
Presenter: Theresa Wood
Wood (486 K)
Ms. Wood described the underlying processes, structures, and strategies that Vermont 's DD service system has in place to support people when they are in crisis.
Collaborating to Support People with Criminal and Other Serious Challenging Behaviors
Presenters: Kathryn du Pree, James Nicholson, Linda Rolfe
du Pree (403 K)
Rolfe (228 K)
This session introduced models of state systems of support for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities who have been charged with/convicted of crimes, and/or present with serious behavioral challenges such as known predatory sexual behavior and/or extreme violence. Because of the multiple needs of people in these groups, multiple services they require, and processes they must go through, states are challenged with forging interagency partnerships on a number of levels. This session explored these partnerships and the related processes that are in place to provide supports and justice.
Involving Self-Advocates in the Quality Assurance/Improvement Process Presenters: Diane Coughlin, Anne Deaton, Jane Gallivan, Vicki Mills
Deaton (206 K)
Ms. Coughlin and Ms. Mills discussed Maryland 's "Ask Me!" Project and its use of self-advocates as interviewers to survey individuals receiving services from DD licensed providers. The focus of the survey is to collect information from individuals receiving services to determine their satisfaction with the quality of their lives. Dr. Deaton described the involvement of self-advocates in the development of Missouri 's quality management processes through their roles on task forces and advisory boards. She also discussed the MoA project that relies on people with DD and their family members as volunteers to assess quality of life in the state's group homes. Ms. Gallivan explored similar efforts in Maine .
Ticket to Work and the Role of State Directors
Presenter: Dan Betts
Betts (1,174K)
As of this month, the Ticket to Work Program is being implemented in all 50 States plus the U.S. Territories. State directors of developmental disabilities services have a unique roll in the education and promotion of this new Social Security Administration employment program. Through the Ticket to Work Program, one individual at a time, you can help reduce the state's liability in providing disability services, facilitate greater choice for consumers, promote greater self-sufficiency, attack the waiting list issues, and increase the quality of services provided to all individuals.
Looking at Systemic Approaches to Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement
Presenters: Fred DeCrescentis, Kathryn du Pree, Gail Grossman, Laura Nuss
DeCrescentis (110 K)
Grossman (472 K)
Nuss, du Pree (385 K)
Representatives from state DD agencies that have been involved in long-term system-wide quality assurance and/or improvement efforts talked about the components of their QA/QI systems, and the lessons learned from their efforts to date.
The SIS: A New Scale to Measure Support Needs
Presenter: James Thompson
Thompson (451 K)
Dr. James Thompson, lead author of the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS), provided an overview of the new assessment: how the scale is to be completed, and how information from the SIS can be used for a variety of planning and policy purposes.
Meeting the Needs of People with "Difficult" Behaviors: A Look at Three States' Work with David Pitonyak
Presenters: Pitonyak, Fay, Rolfe, Thaler
Loneliness is the only real disability: Implications and Recommendations for Policymakers. (Hyperlink redirects you to the Articles and Publications page of Dr. Pitonyak's Imagine Web site. Scroll down to the presentation. Presentations are in alphabetical order.)
Rolfe: Handout (123 K)
David Pitonyak talked specifically about some of his work with state DD agencies, and gave representatives from those states an opportunity to share their perspectives on building systems of support for people with "difficult" behaviors.
Exploring Alternative Oversight Models for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services
Presenters: Stan Butkus, Olivia Garland, Timothy Jones, Todd Ketch
Jones (185 K)
Ketch (118 K)
Stan Butkus described South Carolina 's experience using a peer review organization/quality improvement organization (PRO/QIO) to conduct quality reviews of the state's Medicaid-funded home and community-based wavier services. Mr. Ketch talked about the role QIOs have played in the health care industry to identify opportunities and provide assistance for improvement. While Ms. Garland and Mr. Jones spoke from the QIO perspective about the application of the QIO model to DD service systems.
Using Alternative Approaches to Individual Budgeting
Presenters: Laura Nuss, Margaret Zillinger
Nuss (1,016 K)
Zillinger (170 K)
This session looked at different approaches to individual budgeting used by state systems of MR/DD services.
Reorganizing State Systems of Services for Better Results
Presenters: Mary Lee Fay, Lisa Haire, Gwynn Hughes, Gerry Morrissey
Morrissey (220 K)
Representatives from three state DD agencies that have recently participated in human services reorganization at the state systems level described their new organizational structures, premises behind the changes, and early outcomes.
Community Workforce Development: Core Elements and Contemporary Strategies
Presenters: Trina Losinno, David Losinno, Michelle May
May (107 K)
Ms. May described the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities direct support workforce development project being carried out by the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the University of Minnesota, the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities, and the Human Services Research Institute. This comprehensive effort seeks to improve recruitment and retention of direct support workers through increased training opportunities for direct support workers and supervisors, improved marketing and recruitment tools, a credentialing and apprenticeship pilot program, and statewide capacity building plan. Products created through the projects such as the realistic job preview video were showcased. The Losinnos' presentation outlined the workforce development strategies implemented over the past five years by SPIN, Inc, a community provider agency in Pennsylvania , and recipient of the 2003 Moving Mountains Award for workforce development. They also discussed the measures taken to fund and institutionalize these strategies.
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