Grant
Information
Name of Grantee
Department
of Human Services
Title of Grant
Type of Grant
Real
Choice Systems Change
Amount of Grant
$1,350,000
Year Original Funding
Received
2001
Contact
Information
Aileen Hiramatsu
Division Administrator, DHS
Office of Youth Services
808–587–5721
ahiramatsu@dhs.hawaii.gov
Rebecca Rude Ozaki, Ph.D.
Project Coordinator
Real Choices ACCESS
808–956–9376 (b)
808–956–7878 (f)
rozaki@hawaii.edu
Subcontractor(s)
University of
Robert A. Stodden
808–956–9199
Target
Population(s)
Persons of all ages with disabilities and
those with long-term care needs that require supports to live meaningfully in
their communities.
Goals
Activities
Abstract
The Hawaii Real Choices Partnership will involve all key
stakeholder groups in developing, demonstrating, and institutionalizing one of
the nation's first cross-agency Web-based SEP that will provide consumers with
in-depth, up-to-date information on ALL their available options, including
those offered by private as well as public agencies.
This innovative SEP will employ the latest computer
networking and Web technologies to provide the following consumer-friendly
features: an interactive assessment process to help consumers identify services
for which they are eligible; a unified database showing all long-term care
services offered by the State, counties, and private organizations, with open
slots listed according to geographical location; and a quality assurance
component that will identify service gaps by tracking service requests and
allow consumers to rate the services they receive.
To maximize consumer input into all aspects of the project
and promote collaboration and coordination among all stakeholders, a
collaborative systems improvement process, as demonstrated to be effective in
numerous other systems change efforts, will be implemented. This process will
be used to guide the activities of a partnership governing council, which will
have directive authority over the project and will establish work groups to
address critical topics.
The council and work groups will be chaired by a consumer
(co-principal investigator for the project) and will have at least 51 percent
consumer membership (consumer members will include primary consumers, family
members or others concerned for their well-being, and representatives of
consumer and family organizations). Other council members will include the
heads of the public and private service providing agencies, including the DHS
Director, serving as principal investigator, heads of four DHS divisions, two
Department of Health divisions, and the Executive Office on Aging.
The overall objective of the Hawaii ACCESS Project is to
design and implement effective and enduring improvements in community long-term
support systems for all children and adults with disabilities or long-term
illness, reflecting increased access to information, choice, and quality
services and supports consistent with their community living preferences and
priorities.