Community-Integrated
Personal Assistance Services and Supports
Grant Information
Name of Grantee
The University of
Title of Grant
Community-Integrated
Personal Assistance Services and Supports
Type of Grant
Community-Integrated
Personal Assistance Services and Supports
Amount of Grant
$725,000
Year Original Funding
Received
2002
Contact
Information
Sara Sack
Associate Professor in
2601
620–421–8367
ssack@ku.edu
Shelia Nelson Stout and
K-PASS Grant Coordinators
Occupational Center of Central
1710 W Schilling Road
785–827–9383
Subcontractor(s)
Three developmental disability organizations
to be determined.
Target
Population(s)
Kansans with mental retardation or
developmental disabilities who are served on the MR/DD waiver and who use
personal attendant services.
Goals
Activities
Abstract
This effort focuses on increasing personal care attendant
options for persons who have mental retardation or developmental disabilities
and who are eligible for the Kansas Medicaid waiver program. This program will
support individuals served on the MR/DD waiver in personally managing their
attendant care services. In order to live and participate fully in their
communities, PCAs must be available in an
individual's home, at work, and when away from home. Objectives include
(1) sharing consistent information regarding the range of activities that
an individual might self-direct in regard to their personal attendant services
and (2) increasing the availability of PCA services across the State.
Currently, agreement on self-directed services is lacking and contributes to
the impression that agencies or personal care attendants are driving plans of
care for persons with mental retardation or developmental disabilities.
This goal will also work towards giving consumers maximum
control in exercising choice over all aspects of personal assistant services
and to have sufficient training to direct these services. A pilot program with
service providers and consumers served by three Community Developmental
Disability Organizations (CDDOs) will be conducted.
Project staff will work with the pilot programs to develop a model that
encourages reimbursement of self-directed plans of care for persons with
developmental disabilities based on the consumer's needs, including evaluation
of rates paid.
This program will develop an infrastructure to support
individuals with developmental disabilities or their families/guardians to
develop and exercise management skills, obtain and evaluate customer feedback,
use customer feedback to identify and correct problems, and create a plan for
dealing with recurring issues. Data will be collected regarding the range of
activities persons are currently self-directing and their satisfaction with
these services. Data from the consumers, the pilot agencies, and a control
group will be collected annually. The stakeholder group will consider changes
that could be made in reporting systems to annually collect information
regarding quality indicators. An additional review of a random sample of plans
of care from persons served on the MR/DD waiver will be conducted to review the
range of services utilized, the range of entities providing these services, and
customer satisfaction with the self-directed care process.