Setting the Record Straight

I’ve been writing this blog for nine months now, and I find there are things that don’t look completely accurate anymore.  Since I want to give out correct information, in this post I want to provide a few updates:

• In several posts I’ve said that the closeout of the  Evans lawsuit was nearly complete.  In September I said it was only months away, but things are unfortunately moving more slowly than expected.  In her most recent budget testimony Laura Nuss specified that DDS still has six of the 70 so-called “outcome criteria” to resolve before the case will be closed.  Nuss says she has made a commitment to the new mayor, and she likewise promised the council last month, that this will happen by fiscal year 2016 (which will run from October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016).   Immense progress has been made over the past year on this 39-year-old lawsuit, but unfortunately the time has not yet come for court oversight of D.C. disability services to be lifted.

• I’ve also spoken a number of times about a new waiver, the Individual and Family Services (IFS) waiver, which would provide more flexible in-home supports than the current waiver does.  (This wouldn’t change the eligibility requirement of intellectual disability.)  There’s mostly been silence on this waiver for months now, but the last I heard DDS was going to turn its attention back to it once the state transition plan on compliance with the federal rule on home and community based waivers had been submitted (see March 10, “Why Friday the 13th Matters”).  The transition plan went to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in March, so I hope we’ll be hearing soon about progress on the IFS waiver.  If someone from DDS can provide an update, feel free to comment in response to this post!

• I’d also like to provide some clarification about my own information concerning the likely number of people with developmental disabilities living in D.C.  In “The Way Ahead,” January 26, I used the proportion of Americans with developmental disabilities nationwide to estimate that there should be around 10,000 D.C. citizens with a developmental disability.  Since then I’ve become aware of a report commissioned by DDS and the DDC in 2011 that approached this in a more analytical way and came up with a number closer to 9,300.  Just this week I’ve heard from a local disability group that the number probably falls within a range of 8000-10,000 D.C. citizens.  Even though the overall number may turn out to be slightly lower than the 10,000 I estimated – we really don’t know what the right number is – and even though not all of those people would require Medicaid waiver services, it’s a long way between any of these numbers and the less than 1700 people now getting services from DDA under the waiver.

A Complicated Picture

Sometimes it pays to stay until the end. I was reminded of that at yesterday’s hearing on DDS’s FY 2016 budget before the DC Council’s Health and Human Services committee, chaired by council member Yvette Alexander (Ward 7).  DDS director Laura Nuss testified (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B489LE-2ltOgcEI0dWVZd1ZPTFU/view?usp=sharing) after seventeen other witnesses, and the chair’s very last question to her touched on eligibility criteria for waiver services and the inclusion of persons who have a developmental disability but not an intellectual disability.  The director indicated that DDA is planning to institute greater flexibility with respect to the IQ cutoff of 69 or below, but on expanding eligibility, I was concerned to hear her reply that “a better financial climate for the city” is required.  I’ve heard Laura speak much more forcefully on this subject before, and I’m concerned her answer may mean that expanding Medicaid waiver services to other D.C. citizens in need is not going to be a budget priority for the new mayor.   I continue to be encouraged, however, that the issue has the committee chair’s attention, and hopefully she’ll keep the light shining on this grave and longstanding concern.

The budget hearing ranged across a great variety of topics.  Witnesses’ testimony fell mainly into the following categories (recall that DDA and RSA both fall under the DDS budget): 

-          -- Advocates applauding DDA and strongly supporting its budget.  Several individuals currently benefiting from the DDA waiver (almost all of them receiving services from one particular provider) spoke out forcefully in this regard.  In my own testimony, I advocated in favor of the proposed budget to ensure that DDA can meet its current commitments to waiver-eligible individuals, but at the same time I pointed to the need for services to expand to others who are not currently eligible.

-          -- Advocates for the proposed increase in the RSA budget.  Several of these witnesses were from organizations that have received funding from RSA, and in the interest of transparency, I believe the council should require witnesses to disclose any such past, present, or potential financial interest in their testimony.  These favorable commentaries were challenged by at-large council member Grosso, who said he has heard from many individuals – some of whom testified in February at the performance review hearing - about substandard service from RSA.

-          -- Critics of DDS, a number of whom spoke about reimbursement rates and other policies affecting DDS providers while others addressed problems with the department’s internal personnel policies.    At-large council member David Grosso was especially vocal about this last issue, on which several individuals had apparently approached him personally.  One parent also spoke eloquently about the difficulties she has had in gaining waiver eligibility for her daughter and her ongoing struggles in getting appropriate, community-based services from DDA.  Committee chair Alexander asked whether my personal experience was similar, and I confirmed that it was, although this family’s ongoing challenges with DDA are more significant than those we’ve encountered recently.

I realize this summary won’t provide enough detail on the particular concerns that you may have, and I encourage you to watch the video of the hearing at http://dc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=32&clip_id=2649.  The hearing actually starts about 20 minutes into the video and begins with an initial panel from the Office of Disability Rights.  Then come several panels of witnesses addressing DDS issues, and DDS director Nuss’s testimony starts around the beginning of the third hour.

Finally, a word on council members’ attendance.  Committee chair Alexander was of course there for the whole time, and very engaged.  At-large member Grosso had to leave a couple of times, but had a staff member there throughout and was obviously extremely active and interested in the subjects covered, especially but not only where he saw overlap with the Committee on Education, which he chairs.  Ward 1 member Brianne Nadeau was briefly there at the beginning of the hearing and made a statement.  And the remaining member of the committee, Mary Cheh, as in February, won the prize for her utter, complete, and unexplained absence.  I hope she does not imagine there are no persons with disabilities in Ward 3.

In light of some of my past postings about the need for DDS to get more information online, I’d like to give Erin Leveton a shout-out for having provided the link to the Power Point presentation on the budget:  http://dds.dc.gov/node/1049692.  You should find this quite a bit more readable than the version I scanned for my last posting.

It Takes Money to Make Things Run

This past Monday, April 13, I attended the first of two briefings by Laura Nuss on the mayor’s FY2016 budget proposal and, in particular, the budget proposal for DDS.  There will be a second briefing on Monday, 4/20, 3:30 at the Anacostia library, 1800 Good Hope Road SE - attend if you can.  On the DDS website you’ll see an announcement of the 4/20 meeting, but if the Power Point is there I can’t find it.  I’ve scanned my hard copy to share it with you:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B489LE-2ltOgMUZUbU8wbzBpTHM/view?usp=sharing

The good news:  In a fiscally constrained budget environment, the DDS budget held up well.  There is even a slight proposed increase of $1.7 million for RSA to allow compliance with new federal requirements for transition programming for in-school youth without squeezing other parts of the RSA budget.  The mayor also accepted the argument that most of the DDS budget is D.C. matching with federal Medicaid funds to support the approximately 1650 people currently served under the DDA waiver.  Since D.C. has found these people eligible, the funds have to be provided.  Hopefully the D.C. council will also understand this.

The bad news:  This is, as I said above, a fiscally constrained budget environment.  The mayor has submitted a request that not only involves cuts in some agency budgets, but also proposes an increase in the D.C. sales tax to fund affordable housing.  This means that any thought of developing a waiver to serve people with developmental disabilities who don’t meet the IQ requirement for an intellectual disability is, for now, off the table.  Why?  Because the D.C. matching funds for these additional people would create a new budget requirement.  These are realities.  And until the mayor, and the council, hear that we want justice for citizens with developmental disabilities in our city, the situation is not going to change, even in FY 2017 or beyond.

You have a chance to start being heard on this issue.  On April 29 at 10 a.m., the D.C. council’s Committee on Health and Human Services will hold a hearing on the DDS budget – room 500 of the Wilson Building.  Council members need to hear that we want the council to support the proposed funding for DDS in the mayor’s FY 2016 budget, as the minimum necessary to meet current requirements.  But we also need council members to hear that we want something even better in FY 2017.  So do one or all of these things:  contact Rayna Smith at rsmith@dccouncil.us to get your name on the list to testify in person on the 29th; write her at the same address to say you plan to submit written testimony; or write your council member (http://dccouncil.us/council) to say you support the DDS budget request.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, folks.  So squeak!

Supporting Families Community of Practice

On several occasions I’ve mentioned the Supporting Families Community of Practice (CoP), and in my last posting I said the CoP’s next meeting would be on March 13.  I was out of town for that meeting (also the reason it’s taken me so long to write a new post) but there was a lot on the agenda that’s of interest so I’ve caught myself up on the content and wanted to highlight a few things that deserve your attention:

-           Family Support Council (FSC).  DDS (alison.whyte@dc.gov) is seeking applications for membership on this new Council, which is being set up to ensure that D.C. government agencies are held accountable to citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.  The CoP was set up in 2013 under a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, and the FSC is being created to make sure there’s a continued voice for family concerns when the five-year grant comes to an end.

-           No Wrong Door (NWD).  Since October of last year DDS, in collaboration with other D.C. government agencies that deliver long-term support services to people with disabilities, chronic illnesses or other challenges, has been developing a three-year plan to streamline application processes and develop a customer-oriented entry point and person-centered procedures for all citizens in need of these services.  If the District gets a follow-up grant it will start implementing the NWD plan this fall.  If you’ve tried to figure out the world of service provision in D.C., you’ll know that this is really worth doing, so provide feedback and ideas if you have them, to Erin Leveton at erin.leveton@dc.gov.

-           Supported Decision Making (SDM) Work Group.  In close collaboration with the Quality Trust, the CoP is setting up a work group to examine D.C. laws that may interfere with the ability of people to have family or friends involved in helping with their decision making.  This work group will have a short time fuse – the plan is for it to report in six months.   Either Erin (see above) or Rhonda White of the Quality Trust (rwhite@dcqualitytrust.org) can tell you more about this effort.

I’m told that DDS is going to start posting minutes and other materials from the CoP meetings to its website (www.dds.dc.gov) and when that’s happening I’ll let folks know.  In the meantime, I’m attaching a number of handouts from the March 13 meeting, at this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B489LE-2ltOgc3BaY3lTQTVQRGc/view?usp=sharing

The next meeting of the CoP will likely be in June.  The plan is for it to focus on community supports and organizations, and ways to ensure such information is regularly available and updated for those who need it.  It’s also possible that there will be a keynote by someone well placed in the new administration, presenting an opportunity to sensitize Mayor Bowser to the concerns of D.C. citizens with developmental disabilities.  Stay tuned to the DDS website and you’ll hopefully see information on the June meeting there by next month.

Why Friday the 13th Matters

You should have your eye on this Friday, March 13 for two reasons. 

·      One is the deadline for public comment on the proposed D.C. transition plan for compliance with the federal rule on home and community based waivers:

      https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B489LE-2ltOgVk1LaDBIWkNLSWM/view?usp=sharing

The DDA transition plan for the I/DD waiver is a part of this document, and the DDA plan is what I talked about in my blog on November 24.  This is your opportunity to comment before the full plan is submitted to the federal government.  There was a public comment session last month, but there wasn’t much advance notification.  More information on the federal rule itself can be found at www.hcbsadvocacy.org.  

Send written comments on D.C.’s proposed transition plan to Trina Dutta at the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance, 441 4^th St. NW, 9^th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, or email comments to the email address dhcfpubliccomments@dc.gov.  This plan is going to affect you or your loved one, so it deserves attention.

·       Also, March 13 will be the next session of the Supporting Families Community of Practice, taking place at DLA Piper, LLP, 500 8^th Street NW from 9:30 to 3:30.  This session will be focused on supported decision making (SDM), an important alternative to formal guardianship (www.supporteddecisionmaking.org).  As I mentioned in my blog “Organizations You Should Know” last month, D.C.’s own Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities recently received a competitive HHS grant to develop a national resource center for supported decision-making.  The head of the Quality Trust, Tina Campanella, will attend the Community of Practice meeting on Friday to talk about and field questions about supported decision making.  I don't know yet whether there will be a dial-in or other remote option for participating in the session, but if I learn there is I’ll share that information.

Attend the Community of Practice session on Friday if you can, and if you have comments on D.C.'s proposed transition plan – last chance!  only three days! – send those comments by the 13^th too. 

DDS: Intentions versus Reality

As discussed in my last blog post, I testified on February 20 before the DC Council’s Committee on Health and Human Services.  Here’s my testimony: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B489LE-2ltOgN0IwcXBhVVhFd2c/view?usp=sharing

Although the chair, Yvette Alexander, was very engaged and asked a lot of the right questions, and council members David Grosso and Brianne Nadeau at least attended for part of the time, I was personally extremely disappointed that my council member, Mary Cheh, didn’t show at all and sent no staff.  I was encouraged by Ms. Alexander’s concern about the limitations that current legislation places on eligibility for DDA services, but testimony by Sandy Bernstein of University Legal Services (ULS) and Tina Campanella of the Quality Trust also pointed to the fact that DDA’s intake unit is turning away even individuals who meet the stated IQ requirement under current law.  And Rohini Singh from ULS, along with several parents, testified about the consistent obstacles people are encountering when trying to obtain support from RSA, the other arm of DDS.

DDS director Laura Nuss testified after everyone else, and her head of RSA, Andy Reese, was with her to field questions afterward.  Here is Laura’s testimony:   

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B489LE-2ltOgOWQ4UGt6MVBNNUE/view?usp=sharing

Much of what she had to say was positive, and encouraging.  In particular, I appreciated what she and Andy had to say about person-centered thinking and the enhanced priority given to DDA and RSA working in tandem to support people.

Unfortunately, within just a few days of her testimony, I encountered the reality, and the frustration, that we too often encounter as family members in our direct dealings with DDS staff.  I repeated a request I had made to my son’s DDA service coordinator in December to arrange a brief meeting about how best to develop and encourage his job interests – not yet to help him get a job.  We hoped this meeting would include our son’s current service providers as well as his RSA vocational rehabilitation specialist.  Although our son’s prior service coordinator regularly arranged meetings which RSA also attended, and although the VR specialist has expressed a willingness to be part of such a meeting, our son’s current service coordinator refused to do so.  In fact, instead of agreeably stepping forward to set up a time and place, this coordinator instead lectured me in an email concerning my “confusion about how DDS’ systems work.”  Apparently, the mere mention of the word employment, in this person’s mind, automatically means the ball gets pitched to RSA.  

Rather than DDA/RSA coordination, I get a game of “hot potato.”  All this just to get six people into a room?  This is neither person-centered nor a good demonstration of DDA/RSA teamwork.

I said - perhaps too kindly - in my testimony to the council, “DDS needs to expand further its internal training in person-centered approaches to staff in both DDA and RSA, and establish systems and incentives that require both arms of DDS to work together as a team in supporting the people they serve.”  I believe that Laura Nuss would agree with my statement, so why do so many of her staff resist it?  This needs work, and pronto.

Organizations You Should Know

You know what the Department on Disability Services is.  And you know that DDS, either through its Development Disabilities Administration (for waiver services) or through the Rehabilitation Services Administration (for employment-related services), contracts with organizations that directly provide those services (“providers”).  There are other organizations you should know about though.  These are the organizations dedicated to oversight, advocacy and learning with respect to people with developmental disabilities in the District. 

A number of these organizations are federally-mandated and operate under program grants from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  In every state or comparable jurisdiction, you’ll find three key organizations funded largely by HHS’s Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, or AIDD, which recently became part of the Administration on Community Living.  These are:

• State Councils on Developmental Disabilities, focused on advocacy, systems change and capacity building to promote inclusion of people with developmental disabilities.  In D.C., this organization is the Developmental Disabilities Council (www.ddc.dc.gov, 202-727-6744).  I’ve mentioned the DDC in earlier blog posts.
• State Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems, to protect the personal and civil rights of persons with developmental disabilities, often through legal advocacy.  The P&A agency in D.C. is University Legal Services (www.uls-dc.org, 202-547-0198)
• University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service (UCEDDs), responsible for addressing issues and doing research relating to developmental disability.  The D.C. UCEDD is at Georgetown University (www.gucchdgeorgetown.net/ucedd, 202-687-5503).

 In addition to these federally-mandated groups, D.C. has a unique organization all its own, the Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities (www.dcqualitytrust.org, 202-448-1450).  If you haven’t already found Quality Trust, you should.  At this point, I should admit that I am on QT’s board, which I joined last year in order to support an organization that had played such an important role in our son’s life.  Quality Trust was established in 2001 through one of the consent decrees under the Evans lawsuit, which I talked about in an earlier post (“Where We’ve Come From,” September 25, 2014), as “a durable, independent, nonprofit organization that will monitor and advance the individual and collective interests of people with developmental disabilities in the District of Columbia’s service delivery system.”  Through 2011, QT received funding from the D.C. government to help it perform this role, but not anymore.  Quality Trust advocates on behalf of individuals seeking or already receiving DDS services, and monitors services provided by DDS/DDA under the Medicaid waiver.  It also serves as the organizational home for Project Action!, www.dcqualitytrust.org/advocates/join-project-action, a self-advocacy group for persons with developmental disabilities in D.C.  In an important breakthrough, the Quality Trust recently received a competitive HHS grant to develop a national resource center for supported decision-making (www.supporteddecisionmaking.org).

These are organizations that work actively on the advocacy front to make sure DDS is doing its best work and to keep pushing disability services in D.C. toward the future.  Some of them will no doubt be at the DDS performance review hearing before the Council’s Health and Human Services Committee (chair Yvette Alexander) on February 20 at 10 a.m., room 412 of the Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW).  The D.C. Coalition of Disability Service Providers (www.dccoalitionproviders.org) will also testify. But the committee needs to know that individuals, and not just organizations, care about these issues.  If you can testify, testify.  If you can submit written comments, do that.  If you can come listen, do that.  This is the starting gun for consideration of the budget, and budget translates into services.  We can all be advocates.

The Way Ahead

Some of you may have noticed the following article in the Post last week:  http://wapo.st/1ys00uL.  This seems to confirm that Laura Nuss will be remaining as DDS director, as I’d already heard unofficially.  I still haven’t seen a formal press release from the mayor’s office, but DeBonis usually gets it right.  We also should all be paying attention to the new chair of the D.C. council’s Committee on Health and Human Services, Yvette Alexander.  The budget season is coming up, and on February 20 at 10:00 a.m., she will be chairing the first of two hearings on DDS.  This one is on agency performance, and a later one will be on resources.  Anyone can sign up to testify in person or submit comments:  this is an opportunity to start letting the council know we’re out here and we care.

The viewing of the national Supporting Families Community of Practice webinar and subsequent D.C. discussion took place on January 22.  If you weren’t able to tune in, you can find the webinar at http://supportstofamilies.org/cop/innovations-webinar-series-kickoff-overview-of-the-lifecourse-framework/.  For me, the most important information presented was that, of the 4.7 million American citizens with developmental disabilities, only 25% are receiving services from their state DD administrations (“state” includes DC for these purposes, as we hope will someday  be the case in reality!).  Most of the rest of the presentation had to do with how society as a whole needs to change (and, thankfully, is changing) so that broader supports are available from sources other than state DD offices.  This is a worthwhile effort, particularly in view of the need to continue integrating people with disabilities into our society at large, and the fact that Medicaid and other budgets to fund supports are not expanding much if at all around the country.  However, we can’t lose sight of the fact that state-level services are very much needed by some people not currently receiving them, and we can’t give up on getting those services to them. This is not to say that all 4.7 million Americans with developmental disabilities nationwide would need state DD services, but it’s likely there are quite a few among the 75% not receiving such supports who do indeed need them.

According to my calculations, based on D.C.’s population of about 650,000 and the national rate of 1.58% of the population with a developmental disability, the number of people with developmental disabilities in D.C. could be estimated at about 10,000 citizens, and the number receiving services under the current waiver is under 16% of that, compared to 25% nationally.  This does mean there’s a need for more resources, and we need to be sure the council hears this loud and clear.  However, it’s also true that with only one Medicaid waiver available for people with developmental disabilities, we don’t have a system that’s tailored properly for the different needs of citizens with developmental disabilities in D.C.  So while supports are required for more people, we also need smarter supports in the form of additional types of waivers.

So let’s – all of us – keep the pressure on to address these issues.  Pitch in, folks.

It's You I'm Talking to This Time!

In my last post I offered New Year’s resolutions for the Department on Disability Services.  I hope DDS will take these on board, since much progress is needed.  Progress, though, is a two-way street – or maybe even a four- or five-way intersection – and we can’t just sit back and wait for DDS to think of everything.  

I’ve talked in earlier blogs about the Supporting Families Community of Practice.  D.C. is one of five jurisdictions in the country that got a national grant to explore ways of bringing better supports to families, who nationwide provide the bulk of support for people with disabilities (as we know!).  As the number of people with disabilities increases while government budgets stagnate, there’s a need for a lot more creativity in how we approach support.  The D.C. CoP is chaired by DDS and the non-profit monitoring organization, the Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities, with a core group of local disability organizations (I was recently invited to join the organizers as a parent advocate at planning sessions for the public CoP meetings, and attended my first one on December 10.)  Attendance has grown at each successive meeting of the D.C. Community of Practice, but as I continue to remind the organizers, meetings held in the middle of workdays just aren’t always convenient for family members or people with disabilities themselves.  So far there haven’t been good mechanisms for people who can’t attend to participate by webinar or even on a conference line, nor a good means for people to give input if they weren’t able to attend.  There are sometimes technology limitations, but for the CoP, as for many meetings that DDS hosts on other topics, these limitations need to be overcome.

This is where you come in.  There's a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, January 22, 2-4 (441 4^th Street, NW, Room 1107), that will focus on educating attendees about the Lifecourse Framework for achieving systems and individual change.  A webinar will air, followed by discussion among the participants.  In the planning session, I strongly urged organizers to make available an option allowing people who can’t attend in person to participate, and arrangements have been made to allow remote viewing of the webinar:  https://nasddds.adobeconnect.com/familynetworks/, and (888) 407-5039 for audio (you need to call in for webinar audio, apparently).  I urge any and all of you who can to take advantage of this.  Up to now, service providers have not been a part of the CoP, but beginning at this meeting they will be.  It’s important for families to remain the dominant voice in these discussions!

The issues being discussed in the CoP matter to you – how to get providers, doctors, teachers and others to see you or your family member as a person rather than a disability; how to make local service delivery more responsive to people’s individual needs; how to bring our local laws into the 21^st century and get supports to people who don’t currently get any.  But your voice needs to be heard.  Participating in meetings of the Supporting Families Community of Practice is one way.  And whether or not this works for you next week, be in touch with Erin Leveton (erin.leveton@dc.gov) to let her know that it’s a priority for all future meetings of the CoP, and other meetings hosted by DDS, to allow participation by those unable to attend in person.  Also ask for minutes, video, documents, etc., posted on a website or made available by other means to anyone with an interest, starting with you!  This is a good opportunity to advocate and be heard, so speak up! 

DDS New Year's Resolutions

Mayor Bowser has been sworn in, and I’m hearing straws in the wind that Laura Nuss may stay, but still nothing official. Whoever the director is, it’s critical for DDS to follow through on three fundamental reforms that affect the framework for disability services in the District.  The first of these is to meet the remaining requirements needed to close the Evans lawsuit.  Two others, which I’ve also discussed in earlier posts, involve close collaboration with the D.C. council to ensure changes in legislation and adequate budget support:

-          Expand eligibility for services to those who may not have an intellectual disability but who do have other types of developmental disabilities.  As a council member, Muriel Bowser co-sponsored the DDRA, and as mayor she should follow through to see that this set of constituents is well served by the city.

-          Eliminate court commitment for people with a significant intellectual disability, an outmoded and disrespectful practice that no longer exists anywhere else in the country.

Beyond these essential reforms, there are important actions on which DDS and partner agencies within the Bowser administration need to make further headway in the New Year, in order to improve further the city’s delivery of services for citizens with disabilities:

-          Keep systems serving people rather than the reverse

o   Reinforce training in person-centered thinking so DDA staff don’t lose sight of the individual in their focus on paperwork and process requirements.

o   Get person-centered training going in RSA as well.

o   Underscore to service coordinators and other staff the expectation that they should welcome and facilitate involvement in decision making by designated family and other unpaid supports.

o   Streamline overly burdensome financial systems in order to facilitate payments to DDA by individuals’ designated representatives.

-          Increase professionalism and effectiveness of service delivery

o   Attract even more new service providers to D.C. to increase choice and improve the quality of services.

o   Redouble efforts to get provider staff trained in and focused on person-centered approaches.

o   Move ahead on requiring RSA providers also to be qualified with DDA, so that people don’t have to change providers if funding shifts between the two arms of DDS.

-          Make information more accessible  

o   Keep improving the DDS website so that information is easy to find for people who don’t know the technical terminology or processes. 

o   Hold more public outreach meetings outside of work hours.  Whenever meetings take place, enable teleconference or webinar participation and provide a means of follow-up for those unable to attend. 

o   Institute a variety of mechanisms and efforts to bring information to people where they are.

-          Enhance internal communications

o   Keep emphasizing to DDA service coordinators and RSA vocational specialists serving the same individual that they are on the same team.  It’s not happening even though they’re all located within DDS and under one roof.

o   Within DDA, make sure that different departments don’t contradict or undermine one another.  Poor internal communications only create more barriers for people who are trying to apply for services or obtain services for which they have been found eligible.

New year, new administration – an opportunity for great strides to be made on behalf of D.C. citizens with developmental disabilities.  Let’s do it.