Community-Integrated Personal Assistance Services and Supports
VIRGINIA
Target Population
Recipients of services under three Virginia waivers: the Consumer-Directed Personal Attendant Waiver, the Mental Retardation Waiver, and the Individual and Family Developmental Disabilities Support Waiver.
Geographic Focus
Statewide.
Primary Focus
The grant project will focus on promoting the service choice and service responsibility models of consumer control by (1) interviewing consumers of personal assistance services (PAS) about their satisfaction with services; (2) developing educational and technical assistance materials and resources that promote awareness of the possibilities and options for PAS and that strengthen the ability of individuals to maximize the use of services and support; and (3) expanding the existing technical assistance network by increasing its scope of work and the number of PAS recipients in the network.
Goals, Objectives, and Activities
Goal: Ensure that individuals who are recipients of consumer-directed PAS have the opportunity to express their satisfaction with services and with the process of obtaining services.
Objectives/Activities
- Working with the consumer advisory team, design, pilot, and refine an interview instrument and protocols that enable waiver recipients to provide routine feedback on consumer-directed PAS.
- Develop an implementation plan for the consumer satisfaction survey.
- Conduct interviews with 150 people across Virginia.
- Use results and findings to inform the development of training and technical assistance opportunities, to communicate with key policy and decision makers and to formulate recommendations for changes in regulations, policies, and procedures.
- Develop a sustainability plan to incorporate consumer satisfaction in routine quality assurance reporting.
Goal: Ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to information, tools, and resources to understand and effectively manage and use PAS.
Objectives/Activities
- Develop promotional materials on consumer-directed PAS to disseminate to waiver recipients who may wish to use consumer-directed services.
- Develop educational and technical assistance materials and resources based on promising practices that strengthen the ability of individuals to direct their own services, exercise more control, and assume more responsibility over decisions regarding PAS.
- Design a website devoted to consumer-directed PAS in Virginia to accommodate promotional materials, training materials, tools, and resources.
- Develop an implementation plan for the development and dissemination of project information and resources.
- Develop a sustainability plan for the routine maintenance and dissemination of project information, tools, and resources.
Goal: Provide individuals, families, and providers with technical assistance in understanding and using consumer-directed PAS through the members of the Consumer-Directed (CD) Services Resource Network.
Objectives/Activities
- Increase the number of consumer-directed PAS recipients in the CD Services Resource Network.
- Continue to develop expertise among members of the CD Services Resource Network.
- Assist Network members in working in their respective communities to develop a list of workers interested in providing consumer-directed PAS.
- Develop an implementation plan for expanding technical assistance to include targeted training on consumer-directed PAS.
- Develop a sustainability plan for assuring that technical assistance regarding consumer-directed PAS be available beyond the scope of the grant.
Key Activities and Products
- Design, pilot, and refine an interview instrument and protocols that enable waiver recipients to provide routine feedback on consumer-directed PAS.
- Develop and disseminate promotional materials on consumer-directed PAS to waiver recipients.
- Develop and disseminate educational and technical assistance materials and resources based on promising practices that strengthen the ability of individuals to direct their own services.
- Expand the resources of, and the numbers of individuals served by, the CD Services Resource Network.
Consumer Partners and their Involvement in Implementation Activities
- Consumers are involved in the grant through their participation in the activities of the lead organization, the Partnership for People with Disabilities, where individuals and family members serve as staff, consultants, trainers, and board members.
- The partnership's 40member advisory council has a majority of individuals with disabilities and family members, and the partnership's training advisory team and the CD Services Resource Network both include individuals with disabilities and family members who work alongside providers and agency representatives. The consumer advisory team that will be established as part of this project will draw upon these sources for its membership.
Public and Private Partners and their Involvement in Implementation Activities
Public Partners
- The Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse Services administers the mental retardation waiver.
- The Office of Mental Retardation provides technical assistance and consultation to the system of Community Services Boards that are responsible for supports and services to individuals with mental retardation.
- The Department of Medical Assistance Services will provide guidance and support for the administration of the project.
Private Partners
- The Training Advisory Team of the Partnership for People with Disabilities, a statewide advisory group of consumers, family members, providers, and agency representatives, will provide project oversight.
- CD Services Resource Network, a statewide technical assistance service of the Partnership for People with Disabilities, will develop educational and technical assistance materials and resources.
Advisory Body, Committee, or Task Force
- The training advisory team, composed of individuals being supported through consumer-directed services, individuals receiving waiver services, family members of recipients, providers, and key Virginia agency staff, will provide project oversight.
- A smaller consumer advisory team, composed primarily of individuals receiving consumer-directed PAS, will guide the project in five areas: (1) design, implementation, and review of results of the satisfaction study; (2) policy recommendations developed from satisfaction study results; (3) development of materials; (4) enhancement of the technical assistance network; and (5) the development of plans for implementation and sustainability of consumer satisfaction, technical assistance, and provision of educational materials on consumer-directed services.
Formative/Process Evaluation Activities
- The project will be monitored through the application of a "program outcomes model," for the two types of project work plan objectives: (1) implementation objectives; and (2) participant outcome objectives.
- Two basic evaluation methodologies will be employed, and both qualitative and quantitative evaluation data will be collected. The first methodology will be a systematic monitoring of project activities and review of project documents, records, and products. The second methodology will use training or technical assistance evaluations by participants in training and technical assistance. In addition, all materials developed by the project will be pilot tested for ease-of-use, content, and principles of universal design.
- Project staff will conduct an internal analysis of the results from these project evaluation activities, while an external analysis will be conducted by the consumer advisory team.
Summative/Outcome Evaluation Activities
Summative evaluation activities will be conducted for the VA Community-Integrated Personal Assistance Services and Supports (CPASS) Grant project. The central questions that will be explored include the following:
- Was the project successful? What were its strengths and weaknesses?
- To what extent did the project meet the overall goals?
- Did participants benefit from the project? In what ways?
- What components were the most effective?
- Were the results worth the project's cost?
Strategies to Ensure Sustainability
- This project will create change in the system by developing promotional materials and an expanded technical assistance network that promote self-direction and self-determination with individuals and family members in communities.
- A consumer satisfaction survey will become a part of the ongoing quality assurance system.
- The project will use a "checklist for sustainability" to evaluate progress toward making these changes part of the ongoing system.