In self-direction, people receiving long-term services and supports use a personalized budget to meet their needs through a person-centered planning process. Self-direction provides people maximum control over what services they receive, how much, and who provides them. While every state offers some form of self-direction, utilization to date has not been as expansive as advocates imagined.
In 2022, the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) determined that there was a need for a national effort to expand the quality and availability of self-direction as a person-centered option available to a wide variety of potential participants. To achieve this goal, NCAPPS created the Self-Direction Learning Collaborative which brought together teams from across the country and experts to learn from each other as they worked to improve self-direction in their own states over the course of 18 months. This webinar will highlight successes from two Learning Collaborative teams: Colorado and Ohio.
The webinar will also introduce a new publicly available NCAPPS resource: A Guide for Developing Strategic Objectives to Expand Self-Direction which offers a road map for public managers and advocacy organizations looking to make self-direction more available and accessible in their own states.
Valerie J. Bradley is the founder and president emerita of the Human Services Research Institute. With more than 40 years of experience, Val is a nationally recognized expert in the intellectual and developmental disabilities field. She has devoted her career to working with public agencies and other researchers to strengthen services, improve programs, and inform policy—all as an early and staunch advocate for the direct participation of people with disabilities in these efforts.
Jessica Corral, MSW, is the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing's contract specialist for Participant Directed Programs. She ensures the state's self-directed members receive high quality fiscal and training services through active engagement and data-driven assessment. Jessica believes in the power of communities collaborating with state agencies to create sustainable policies and promotes accessible education for members to best navigate their healthcare services.
Emily Harvey is the In-Home Supports Services (IHSS) Policy Advisor at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF). Emily strives to ensure members have access to the services that enable them to lead fulfilling lives. Two decades of direct care experience and over a decade of leadership experience within agency care have shaped Emily’s belief that people can thrive in life when provided with the appropriate resources and supports.
Oliver Giminaro has lived with a C4 spinal cord injury for the last 32 years. During these three decades, he has continued to educate himself and others, sharing his experiences and knowledge with the Denver, Colorado community and beyond in the service of disability awareness and advocacy. Oliver has a background in Mechanical Engineering. He now serves on the Board of Directors for the Chanda Plan Foundation. Oliver is Co-chair of the Direct Care Workforce Collaborative.
Dana Charlton has 50 years of disability system experience and currently serves as Director of the Ohio Self Determination Association, a non-profit policy advocacy organization in Ohio. Prior experience with the Ohio Dept. of Developmental Disabilities began in 1973 as a teacher in a state institution, leaving years later as Deputy Director, responsible for a $3 million budget and 90 plus staff, providing technical assistance, provider licensing/certification, management of interagency agreements, rule development, and self-determination initiatives.
Lisa Comes is the Service and Support Advisor (SSA) for the Ohio Association of County Boards of Developmental Disabilities (OACB). She has been working in the developmental disabilities field in Ohio for 30+ years. Lisa is passionate about self-determination, person-centered planning, self-directed services and supporting people with disabilities and their families in the aging process. Her passions come from her work experience and role as a mother of four adult children including one with significant developmental disabilities who is 25 years old.
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NCAPPS is an initiative from the Administration for Community Living and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to help States, Tribes, and Territories to implement person-centered practices. NCAPPS webinars are open to the public, and are geared toward human services administrators, providers, and people who use long-term services and supports. All NCAPPS webinars will be recorded and archived at https://ncapps.acl.gov.