Happy 4th of JULY. Welcome to the latest edition of CDRC’s newsletter. In this edition we will be discussing the Money Follows the Person Grant, CDRC’s Olmstead training and MORE!!!
Money Follows the Person Demonstration
Grant Workgroup - MFPD
The Money Follows the Person Demonstration
Rebalancing (MFPD) was formed as part of federal legislation titled the Deficit
Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 to rebalance Medicaid/Medicare spending (more
community, less institutional). The MFPD allows Maryland to receive an enhanced
match from the federal government. The MFPD workgroup’s mission is to make
recommendations about policy decisions regarding the implementation of MFPD.
The committee will be meeting twice a month to get the operation protocol
(plan) together. The Federal match is usually 50% (half the money coming from
the state, half coming from the federal government) for people in institutional
settings (Nursing homes and Institutions for the Mentally Retarded, ICF/MR).
With the MFPD grant, Maryland will receive a 75-25 match for the first year a
person leaves an institutional facility. This
will save Maryland a lot of money. This
money will assist people out of institutional settings and into the community
where we ALL belong. A total of 3091 people will be able to move to the
community because of this grant. On
June 19th the workgroup meeting for the MFPD grant was held. Two
member of CDRC are on the MFPD workgroup, with a lot of other CDRC members
supporting them in the audience. Other committee members include Advocates,
Agencies on aging, Community Providers and many others. The operational protocol
(how it will all work) for MFPD provides a detailed guideline for the
implementation of MFPD. This is
where the committee’s work will come in.
The Developmental Disability Administration (DDA) formed a sub-committee for MFPD to give suggestions to the big MFPD committee for individuals with developmental disabilities that are in an institutional settings.
Rosewood Movie day
– June 30th
CDRC had a great members turn-out for the Rosewood outreach event called Movie day scheduled for 1-4pm. Somehow the staff decided the 1:30 was going to be “feeding time” so we waited until nearly 3 for staff to bring “no more than 30” people over. While working for weeks with the activities and administrative staff, we were lead to expect nearly 30 participants. We were very excited. The activities director for Saturday eventually brought one person, who was not able to speak or eat our snacks and for whom we were not sure if he liked all the company. With little time remaining before MTA and other transportation was to arrive, we just showed Living Free, MDLC’s DVD about community opportunities. The one staff person said he was impressed and the one resident did not indicate what he thought. Back to the drawing board of creative strategies.
CDRC 2 Part Olmstead Theamed Training
The June 16th Olmstead Training was well received by advocates that attended. Everyone learned a lot and enjoyed the guest speakers, which included Henry Bogdan, Director of Public Policy for Maryland Non-Profits, Delegate Dan Riley, and Tom Nerney of the National Center For Self Determination. Mr. Bogdan presented on Public Policy Advocacy, Delegate Riley presented on what are the most effective ways to meet with a legislator, and. Mr. Nerney presented on the evolution of the rights of people with disabilities. We would like to thank everyone that attended the training and we would especially like to thank the guest speakers.
The second part of CDRC’s Olmstead training will be July 14th.
This training is intended to
teach participants how to speak to officials and how to use technology to
advocate. Speakers will be Susan Ellsworth of Toastmasters (they teach people
how to speak in public), and Michael Dalto of the Maryland Technology Assistance
Program (M TAP). This should also be a great day of education. We have enclosed a registration form. If you would like to attend the
training, please fill out the registration form and return it to Kenny.
Also, Registration forms are the bottom of our
home page at http://thecdrc.org/index_files/training_flyer.htm, http://thecdrc.org/index_files/training_registration_form.htm
Right To Be Informed - RTBI
The RTBI workgroup had a meeting in early June. We stated in last month’s newsletter that the regulations for Right To Be Informed were supposed to take effect June 18th. Later we learned that the regulations are being held up for more comments and possible changes. The letters regarding the regulations should have been sent out to Providers and Resource Coordinators in late June. A sub-committee will meet in early July to brainstorm and give suggestions on what materials are needed to help individuals learn about their most integrated service options.
Housing
Resource Day
Baltimore County hosted a Housing Resource Day June 30th where CDRC members learned about credit histories, Fair Housing Act rights, tenants Rights and obligations, and met vendors of all kinds of housing services, including assistive technology to help modify apartments and homes. CDRC members were also able to educate a few housing policy makers and Del. Lafertty, on the environmental matters committee in Annapolis, about how many people with disabilities are stuck in Baltimore County nursing homes because there is not enough affordable, accessible, integrated housing in the county. People said they wished they could stay but also wanted to be sure to go to Rosewood outreach Movie Day
CDRC’S
continuation Proposal 1st Draft
As we mentioned in last month’s newsletter, CDRC hired Barbara McCord to help write CDRC’S continuation proposal for the DD Council. Barbara will also try to help CDRC find other funding sources as well. Barbara has finished the first draft of the proposal. CDRC’s Board Of Leadership met with Barbara to go over the first draft and made some changes to it.. The second draft will be completed in mid July.
Outreach
CDRC presented to the Anne Arundel County self-advocacy group, People Connect in June. There were 10 members of People Connect in attendance. We received a lot of good questions during the presentation. We would like to thank People Connect for inviting CDRC to there meeting and we look forward to working with them in the future.
Web Site
Kenny will continue to update our web page weekly. He will be updating the site with some photos from recent events soon!!! Also remember to check the Calendar for CDRC activities! Please visit the site often to stay on top of what CDRC is doing. www.thecdrc.org
Our
next CDRC membership meeting will be: