Real
Choice Systems Change
MASSACHUSETTS
Grant
Information
Name of Grantee
Center
for Health Policy and Research
University of Massachusetts Medical
School
Title of Grant
Massachusetts Real Choice Systems Change:
Enhancing Community Based Services
Type of Grant
Real
Choice Systems Change
Amount of Grant
$1,025,000
Year Original Funding
Received
2001
Amount of Supplemental Grant
$360,000
Supplemental Award Received
2002
Contact
Information
Dee O'Connor, Director
Long-term Care Unit
508–856–8148
darlene.oconnor@umassmed.edu
Erin Barrett
Real Choice Project Director
Center for Health Policy and Research
222 Maple Avenue, Higgins Building
Shrewsbury, MA 01545
508–856–8496
erin.barrett@umassmed.edu
www.massrealchoices.org
Subcontractor(s)
Southeast Center for
Independent Living and Elder Services of Worcester
Area
Stavros Independent Living
Target
Population(s)
Individuals with disabilities and
long-term illnesses not served by the current PCA program.
Goals
- Improve coordination
and collaboration among agencies in the development of long-term support
systems' policy studies, program redesign options, and related
pilot-testing activities.
- Plan for an integrated
information infrastructure that will involve developing state-of-the-art
tools for client functional assessments, streamlining the eligibility
determination process for long-term care services, and enhancing service
coordination options.
- Develop, implement,
and evaluate new community-based service coordination and delivery system
models.
- Develop meaningful and
sustainable mechanisms for involving consumers in the planning and program
development process.
- Develop systems for quality
monitoring and continuous quality improvement for the pilot project.
Activities
- Implement interagency
policy coordination and program development.
- Establish an
interagency steering committee of secretariats and commissioners to
provide leadership in program and policy development and coordination
across agencies.
- Assess existing
functional assessment tools used by Massachusetts
and by other states and design a universal core intake and functional
assessment tool with modules for specific populations to be used in the
pilot.
- Perform assessment of
quality monitoring mechanisms currently in place and explore new
instruments and methods related to quality assurance.
- Conduct a review of
literature related to the quality of long-term care, including a review of
best practices.
- Use a pilot program to
test a new form of community-based long-term services and supports.
Abstract
Coordinated by the UMASS Medical
School Center
for Health Policy and Research (UMMS/CHPR), the Real Choice Grant is designed
to enhance the quality and accessibility of the present array of home and
community-based long-term supports available to individuals of all ages with
disabilities and long-term illnesses.
The grant is in the second phase of a three-phased
approach. The first phase was to examine five project areas: assessment,
information infrastructure, service coordination, education on disability
issues, and consumer-defined quality. The second phase is to implement a pilot
project designed by a collaborative group of state and consumer
representatives. The third phase will be to evaluate the process and the
results of the pilot, and to provide recommendations for next steps.
The primary goal of the pilot project, created by the Real
Choice Collaborative Team in collaboration with the Real Choice Consumer
Planning and Implementation Group and State Partners, is to increase the
quality of life and independence of participants though cost-effective flexible
funding. UMASS Medical School,
Center for Health Policy and Research (UMMS/CHPR) will administer the pilot,
and evaluate the impact of the pilot activities on consumers' quality of life
and independence.
A review committee of State and consumer partners will rate
and recommend subcontractors to UMMS/CHPR through an open "Request for
Proposals" process. The pilot will begin in November 2004. The pilot will
be evaluated by UMASS/CHPR in collaboration with Consumer-Quality Initiatives,
Inc., a consumer-driven mental health participatory action research organization.