The Boston College Graduate School of Social Work has launched a technical assistance center that offers the tools states need to implement participant-directed long-term care programs.
The National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services, the only national center of its kind, will assist states and other entities that want to offer, or already offer, participant-directed services to people with disabilities. Participant-directed – also called consumer-directed and self-directed – long-term care programs help people of all ages across all types of disabilities maintain their independence and determine what mix of personal care services and support work best for them.
“The mission of the National Resource Center is to give every person eligible to receive publicly funded long-term care services and support the option to manage those services for themselves at home,” said Kevin J. Mahoney, director of the new center and a professor at Boston College.
The National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services will provide technical assistance, training, research and policy analysis to states and other organizations with the goal of improving the lives of people of with disabilities who want to maintain their independence and freedom to direct their own services and support. The center is funded by a $4.75 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a $3.5 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies and additional support from the U.S. Administration on Aging and the Office for the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
The center will build on lessons learned from the Cash & Counseling program, which has been implemented in 15 states. That program allows its participants to choose the type of services they receive, who provides those services and when, and to manage their own budgets to pay for the mix of goods and services that best meet their needs.
Specifically, the center can provide technical assistance to Area Agencies on Aging, Centers for Independent Living and other organizations that are instrumental in implementing participant-directed programs. The center will work closely with the National Participant Network, which brings together participants from different Cash & Counseling states to build involvement at the state level and provide feedback for program development and successful implementation of participant-directed services.
“The new center will be a tremendous resource for states and others that want to successfully introduce or sustain a participant-directed long-term care program,” said William Ditto, director of the New Jersey Division of Disability Services. “Kevin Mahoney and his team helped New Jersey successfully transition our Personal Preference program from a small Cash & Counseling demonstration program to a fully integrated, state-supported option with more than 750 participants and more people enrolling every month.”
Research has shown that participants are satisfied with self-directed programs, and demand for these services has grown.
“Our vision is that, one day, high-quality, participant-directed care programs, based on the hallmarks of the very successful Cash & Counseling program, will be the primary way that all states make personal care services available to eligible residents with disabilities – with a traditional direct-care plan available as an option rather than as a default plan,” said Mahoney.