Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Initiative
IDAHO
Target Population
People of all ages with physical, mental, developmental, or aging-related disabilities and long term care needs.
Geographic Focus
Statewide.
Primary Focus
- Under this grant, the State will build on work begun under the 2001 Real Choice Grant by completing a research-validated plan for community integration in Idaho.
- The grant emphasizes the Money Follows the Person (MFP) principles of accessible and available community services and affordable and accessible housing options. Activities conducted under this grant will demonstrate the feasibility of providing such services in a cost-neutral manner to the maximum number of individuals with disabilities in the most integrated settings based on their wants and needs.
Planned Use of Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS): No.
Goals, Objectives, and Activities
Goal: Facilitate community integration through a continuing anti-stigma campaign.
Objectives/Activities
- Convene or reconvene advisory councils and working groups to support the anti-stigma community development effectiveness plan.
- Continue anti-stigma campaign.
- Conduct a values and attitudes post-test.
Goal: Examine the political and fiscal feasibility of increasing resources for community living and explore ways to create a more hospitable community through a community development project.
Objectives/Activities
- Issue request for proposal (RFP) to identify communities and establish cooperative agreements for community development under the previously developed project.
- Convene advisory councils.
- Monitor selected communities to develop identified community resources across life areas to make community hospitable.
Goal: Study ways to assist people with disabilities to reach their community integration goals through a community-based effectiveness study.
Objectives/Activities
- Refine plan for effectiveness study, using information from the previous study.
- Issue RFP for a study using one treatment and one comparison community.
- Recruit and enroll 15 to 45 people who would like to participate in the effectiveness study.
- Intensify the anti-stigma campaign in the community development town.
- Conduct 1year follow-up on the cohort from previous study.
- Collect 1year follow-up data on the second cohort.
Goal: Identify ways to reapportion and maximize funding for community-based services through a statewide service utilization and economic analysis.
Objectives/Activities
Test 2001 plan as phase II of an ongoing effectiveness study.
Key Activities and Products
- Continue implementation of existing anti-stigma campaign.
- Recruit selected communities to identify and develop supportive resources.
- Conduct an extended community-based study of the effectiveness of an intensive anti-stigma campaign.
- Conduct an intensive economic and policy analysis of statewide service utilization since 1995.
Consumer Partners and their Involvement in Implementation Activities
- The Community Integration Committee, which oversees the activities of this project, includes people with disabilities and family members, both as individuals and as representatives of consumer organizations.
- The project effectiveness study will focus on self-directed community integration for individuals experiencing a disabling condition or long-term illness, and individual participants in the study will actively direct activities relating to their community integration and will provide ongoing feedback regarding their needs and preferences. Individual participants will be surveyed at regular intervals to determine whether the project meets their needs and whether they are satisfied with expected outcomes.
- Community to Community Coalitions will be established in the research sites to involve a broad base of community members and to bring community leaders together with consumers to find ways the broader community can help in the integration efforts.
Public and Private Partners and their Involvement in Implementation Activities
Public Partners
- The State Mental Health Planning Council, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Division of Labor, Department of Housing and Finance, Department of Transportation, Idaho Commission on Aging, and Area Agencies on Aging will assist the project through consultation, in-kind support, or collaboration through grant-funded and other activities.
- The Departments of Special Education, Health and Welfare, Vocational Rehabilitation, Housing and Finance, Transportation, and Labor, as well as the Commission on Aging and the State Mental Health Planning Council are represented on the grant's oversight body, the Community Integration Committee.
Private Partners
- The State Independent Living Council, Living Independence Network Corporation, Council on Developmental Disabilities, Comprehensive Advocacy Incorporated, AARP, Consortium of Idahoans with Disabilities, Brain Injury Association of Idaho, The NAMI-Idaho Chapter, Idaho Health Care Association, Nursing Home Association, Idaho Housing Finance Association, Idaho Psychological Association, and Idaho Primary Care Association will assist the project through consultation, in-kind support, or collaboration through grant-funded and other activities.
- The Idaho Health Care Association and AARP are represented on the grant's oversight body, the Community Integration Committee.
Advisory Body, Committee, or Task Force
- The Community Integration Committee, created in September 2000 before the announcement of the original System Change Grants, will serve in an advisory capacity to work conducted under this grant. The Committee comprises people with disabilities, family members, and representatives of private organizations and public agencies. Because the Committee is large and oversees numerous grants, grant-related working groups under the Committee will exercise its authority for particular tasks.
- Community to Community Coalitions will also be established in the research sites to involve a broad base of community members in the successful integration of people with disabilities into local life. Membership of the Coalitions will include consumers as well as a broad spectrum of local opinion leaders, including faith-based organizations, city officials, legislators, business/employers, housing developers, and private entities providing community integration programming.
Formative/Process Evaluation Activities
- The anti-stigma campaign will be evaluated based on the volume of calls to the Department of Health and Welfare's toll-free information number.
- The community development project will be evaluated through monthly written reports and a quarterly meeting with the site principal investigator.
- Individuals participating in the community-based clinical effectiveness study will be surveyed at regular intervals to determine whether the project meets their needs and whether they are satisfied with expected outcomes.
Summative/Outcome Evaluation Activities
- The project includes a community-based clinical effectiveness study which will select two towns: a treatment town, which will receive the treatment (a "stepped up" anti-stigma campaign and the community development project), and another town, matched to the treatment town based on demographics of size, which will not experience the additional anti-stigma campaign efforts, nor will they receive the community development project. Individuals desiring community placement will be recruited and assessed to determine the effect of the treatment on the implementation of their life plans.
- A market penetration analysis phone survey will be conducted following the anti-stigma campaign in order to determine the impact of the campaign.
Strategies to Ensure Sustainability
- This grant project is designed to produce sustained change through identifying implementation strategies for cost-effective community-based care, a policy which has the support of the State legislature.
- Specifically, the grant project will conduct data activities to support the realignment of the system and demonstrate the feasibility of providing needed, quality, and cost-effective services to individuals with disabilities that will enable them reside in the most integrated settings based on their wants and needs.
- The grant project will use cost-neutral management and realignment of dollars to devise a system which can distribute services to the maximum number of people in coordination with other community services programs.