Real
Choice Systems Change
MARYLAND
Grant
Information
Name of Grantee
Department
of Mental Health and Hygiene
Title of Grant
Increasing
Access, Service Availability, and Quality in Maryland's Long-Term Care System
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
Expected Completion Date
June 2006
Contact
Information
Mark Leeds, Director
410-767-6770
leedsm@dhmh.state.md.us
Lisa Kelemen, Administrator
201 W. Preston Street,
Room 122-F
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-767-5095
kelemenl@dhmh.state.md.us
Subcontractor(s)
Mental Hygiene Administration; University of Baltimore
Schaefer Center for Public Policy; University of Maryland, Baltimore County;
and several local health departments
Target
Population(s)
People of all ages with disabilities. One grant initiative is designed specifically for children
with serious emotional disturbances.
Goals
- Permanently increase the
availability of attendant care services.
- Provide information and
assistance to consumers in acute care hospitals to aid decision-making and
assist with transitions back to the community.
- Assess the quality of
community-based long-term care services and use that information to focus
on quality improvement efforts in the future.
- Improve community-based
service delivery to children with serious emotional disturbances.
Activities
- Develop a pilot project
to provide outreach to persons in hospitals to inform them of
community-based long-term care options to prevent unnecessary
institutional placement. The project will include working with a hospital
discharge planner to inform individuals of community-based services and
programs at the point of discharge from the hospital. This initiative also
includes funding for the development of educational materials to inform
individuals about community-based programs in Maryland.
- Target efforts to
increase the community long-term care workforce. This includes hosting
provider job fairs across the State targeted to direct care workers where
technical assistance with completion of the provider applications and
specific qualifications can be provided.
- Develop a capitated demonstration program to better serve
children with serious emotional disturbances (SED).
- Develop performance
measures for community-based long-term care programs. This includes
development and implementation of consumer satisfaction surveys for Maryland's
community-based programs.
Abstract
The Real Choice Systems Change Grant will build on Maryland's commitment to
providing home and community based services to individuals in the community.
The funding will enable Maryland
to address a number of issues in delivering long-term care services. Maryland has an active
Consumer Advisory Board (CAB), which convenes regularly, that was built on the
consumer workgroup established to develop the Real Choice Systems Change Grant
initiatives in summer 2001. The CAB will offer advice and recommendations in
the process of the implementation of the grant initiatives. The CAB will work
collaboratively with Maryland's
Nursing Facility Transition Grant.
The grant includes four initiatives:
- Implementation of a
pilot project to provide outreach and information to persons of all ages
with disabilities in acute care hospitals to ensure that they have
comprehensive information about community-based long-term care options and
how to access them, particularly when planning for discharge from acute
care settings. This initiative has also expanded to include outreach and
information to discharge planning professionals. Additionally, a
continuing education unit course for discharge planners was developed
based on lessons learned from hospital outreach activities.
- Focus on implementing
activities designed to attract and retain long-term care direct care
workers and mitigate the long-term care worker shortage.
- Development and
implementation of a managed care demonstration program to provide
coordinated long-term care services to children with SED who would
otherwise likely "fall through the system cracks" and languish
in long-term care facilities or psychiatric hospitals. Development and
implementation oversight would be grant-funded. Services would be
state-funded.
- Development of quality
indicators for long-term care services, a comprehensive satisfaction
survey, and survey approach to be administered to home and community
waiver participants and establishment of a quality measurement and
improvement process that would be maintained after the grant period
concludes.