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Hello to all of our readers. HAPPY 2008!!!!!! We hope that everyone had a nice holiday. But, it is back to work. The 2008 Legislative Session begins January 9th. In this edition, we will be discussing Rosewood, CMS, MFP and much more. Rosewood
In last months newsletter we
informed you Rosewood
residents continue to be in immediate jeopardy of harm according to a new
report released by the Office of Health Care Quality. (OHCQ)
Some of the state Legislators
have made comments in newspapers stating they feel like the state is moving
towards closure. Here are a couple
of their quotes from the newspaper. "My
sense it that they're moving toward the closure of that facility," said
Del. Peter A. Hammen, a Baltimore Democrat and chairman of the House Health and
Government Operations Committee, which considered legislation this year to force
Rosewood's closure. The
national trend is to phase out such institutions, said Michael S. Chapman, the
newly hired director of the state's Developmental Disabilities Administration,
which oversees Rosewood. "There is a national movement of
de-institutionalization in favor of community-based services," he said,
adding that about a dozen states are now institution-free. So what
does this beating around the thorny rose-bush mean? Keep your ears to the ground
and we’ll keep you up to date.
CDRC,
People On the Go and ADAPT had an event at Rosewood the middle of December for
the residents. We had Card making, cookie decorating and music activities.
We had a great turnout. We had at least 25 Rosewood residents attend.
That is a record! They all enjoyed it. The staff members from Rosewood
were very helpful in assisting people with the activities.
We learned from Dr. Day that 5 residents moved out of Rosewood in
December- Home for the Holidays! Another resident told us he was moving
out in January. We would like to thank Dr. Day for his support in making
the activity day happen and for his consistent work to transition people to the
community. We are thinking
that our next event might be sometime in February surrounding Valentine’s Day.
Maybe, “Home is where the Heart is!” Money
Follows the Person CDRC and SunShineFolk have played
an active role in the planning process for the MFP demonstration grant. We have
reviewed the operational protocol drafts and made policy and practical
suggestions for the demonstration. According to the state’s report to the
federal policy makers, it was consumers, like the 6 CDRC members, who proposed
and supported the idea of using peer mentors to provide outreach to
institutional residents. The peer-to peer contracts will reflect CDRC and SSF
principles of paying stipends for peers, being in the person centered planning
process with the professionals, as invited by the individual transitioning.
These peer contract will be granted in two phases, a pilot by March and then a
“lessons learned” long term contract sometime late in the summer. CDRC advocated for broadening the
role of peers to include ongoing support as is reflected in the operational
protocol. Another significant contribution from CDRC is the aggressive
projection of numbers of transitions. “It is with the encouragement of the
consumer advocates that the State has maintained such aggressive growth and
transition projections for the demonstration.” The state said, “ The peer
mentoring contractors are likely to employ current consumers and their families
in the role of peer mentors so that consumers and advocates will have a direct
role in the outreach and marketing of Maryland’s community-based care options
and in the direct support of individuals who are seeking to transition. This
will provide an avenue for consumers to directly influence the process and
better inform the Advisory group of transition challenges and successes.” The
revised protocol has been submitted as we go to press and we are all working to
be sure the first MFP participant is ready to roll out when we get the “go
ahead” from CMS. Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services and paying for service/resource coordination
for people coming out of institutional settings. We
informed in December’s newsletter about some changes that the federal government is thinking
about for service coordination types of services for people who are trying to
move out of institutions. The new rules are
restricting the number of days the state can get paid to 60 days (reduced from
the current 180 days) for people who have been in there for more than 6 months.
If someone has been in an institution for less than 6 months, then the service
coordination will only get paid for two measly weeks. This idea is a bad one.
We were afraid that this new rule would ruin the MFP strategies but we
have learned that CMS said that the new rules wouldn’t apply to the MFP
protocol YET because it is a demonstration. But lots of other important programs
will be ruined so we have to make CMS change it’s mind about this approach to
cost containment. During January CDRC will be talking to its allies and will be
writing its comments on this issue. CDRC
knows that having
a case manager for only 60 days prior to moving out of an institution is simply
IMPOSSIBLE. If you have
any comments or a story that you might have on this issue please e-mail Kenny Kenny@thecdrc.org
CommunityPathways
Waiver CDRC
would like to remind our readers that the CommunityPathways waiver is up for
renewal. If you have any
suggestions on making the waiver better, please contact Kenny.
CDRC will be making suggestions for improvements. But we have very little
time because DDA has to send it in soon.
Catrinoa Johnson will be meeting with the Board of
Leadership to get our thoughts on any changes or suggestions we would have on
the waiver. Are
you on the waiver? Do you get what you need? Do you get choices? Community Pathways continues to cover services such
as residential, CSLA, day and supported employment services. Additionally, it
covers Family and Individuals Support Services for eligible individuals.
Community Pathways currently serves nearly 9,000 people with developmental
disabilities.
Assistive
Technology, Attendant Care, Behavior Consultant, Case Management, Day
Habilitation, Dietitian, Addaption Modifications and much more. Board
Of Leadership We
would like to congratulate CDRC’s newly voted Board Of Leadership members:
Dominic Ridgeway, Sylvia Matthews, James Devore, Charles Grey and Linda
Cooper. We would also like to say
thanks for all of the folks that applied but did not get voted to the BOL.
CDRC
Meeting
Just a REMINDER that the CDRC membership meeting is moving in
January Next CDRC Membership Meeting: January 27 Time: 1:00 – 4:00 Location:
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