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Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities

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Photo by Larry Crayton on Unsplash

Family-Centered Care: One Organization’s Revolutionary Approach to Include Families in All Aspects of Care

Monday, April 20, 2026
11:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT; 10:00 am – 11:00 am CDT;
9:00 am – 10:00 am MDT; 8:00 am – 9:00 am PDT 
Register Here

Donna Provenzano, Director of Family-Centered Care

Donna Provenzano is the Director of Family-Centered Care at Children’s Specialized Hospital. She has thirty-nine years of experience in working with children, adolescents, young adults, and their families at Children’s Specialized. Donna serves on several hospital leadership committees and councils and provides administrative and operational management of Family-Centered Care and Volunteers. She supervises and partners with Family Faculty staff and coordinates with the Family Advisory Council. Donna has presented both nationally and internationally on Patient- and Family-Centered Care. Under Donna’s leadership, her department received the IPFCC Family-Centered Care Partnership Award for Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) in 2022. Donna has received additional leadership certifications from the Harvard Business School. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Therapeutic Recreation from Ithaca College.

Linda Waddell, Family Faculty Manager

Linda Waddell is the Family Faculty Manager at Children’s Specialized Hospital. She has been employed at the hospital as a Family Faculty since June of 2008 and a member of the Children’s Specialized Hospital’s Family Advisory Council since 2014. On behalf of the hospital, Linda has presented with her team on Patient- and Family-Centered Care at regional, national, and international conferences. Most recently, Linda was a member of a panel that presented at the 2024 RISE Summit “Addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDOH): A Look into Children’s Specialized Hospital’s Program in NJ and Beyond.” Linda participates in various hospital committees and is also a member of the IPRC Steering Committee, where she provides a family member’s perspective for discussions and decision-making.

Linda was the 2019 recipient of the Lester Z. Lieberman Humanism in Healthcare Award and received the IPFCC 30th Anniversary 2022 Partnership Award on Social Determinants of Health. Linda received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Kean University. Linda’s first experience with Children’s Specialized Hospital began in 1999, receiving multiple services for her newborn, medically fragile baby. She became an expert in the experience of pediatric rehabilitation through caring for her daughter with medical complications.

Family Faculty at Children’s Specialized Hospital are paid positions held by parents and family members whose children have received or are still receiving services at Children’s Specialized Hospital Inpatient, Outpatient, or Long-Term Care sites. Their own day-to-day experiences provide a unique perspective, understanding, and empathy for families going through similar situations. Family Faculty partner with staff and families to build a respectful and understanding relationship by listening, providing insights, and encouraging positive communication between staff and families.

Objectives: At the end of this session, the learner will identify strategies to:

  • Embed Patient- and Family-Centered Care into your organization;
  • Cultivate respectful partnerships and collaboration with leadership, staff, and families;
  • Include families in education and training of staff at all levels; and
  • Engage families and staff in creating valuable resources.

Audience: This webinar is intended for all interested members of the rehabilitation team.

Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Certificate of Attendance: Certificates of attendance are available for all attendees. No CEs are provided for this course.

Complimentary webinars are a benefit of membership in IPRC/RCPA. Registration fee for non-members is $179. Not a member yet? Consider joining today.

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Image by Shotkitimages from Pixabay

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) and Temple University have developed a new online training module shared in ODPANN 26-036. The newly released lesson provides an additional learning opportunity designed to enhance skills relating to interviewing the victim of an incident and supplies helpful information to Certified Investigators (CI), Administrative Review Committee members, CI Peer Reviewers, Incident Management (IM) Reps, and others involved in the incident investigation process. The “Interviewing the Victim” lesson has been added to the Additional Learning Opportunities section on the MyODP, PA ODP Certified Investigator Program Home page.

Please view the announcement for more details.

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) has shared the Medication Administration face-to-face schedule for April–June 2026 in ODPANN 26-035. New Trainer classes are for first-time trainers who are designated as “New Trainer” and start at 8:30 am.

Recertifying Trainer Classes are available in the morning and in the afternoon according to the schedule. Morning classes are designated as AM Recertification classes and will start at 8:30 am. Afternoon classes are designated as PM Recertification classes and will start at 1:00 pm.

You may register for one of these sessions after completing the course materials in the Train-the-Trainer course on MyODP’s Medication Administration website.

Please review the announcement for class schedule and additional details.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the final rule that implements requirements of the Administrative Simplification subtitle of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, enacted on March 30, 2010.

Specifically, this final rule adopts standards for health care claims attachments transactions, which will support health care claims transactions and a standard for electronic signatures to be used in conjunction with health care claims attachments transactions.

The final rule will slash wasteful spending and antiquated paperwork by swapping out faxing and mailing for streamlined electronic transactions. This action lets providers spend less time on administrative hassle and more time caring for patients and is projected to save the healthcare industry approximately $781 million on an annual basis.

The final rule will be published in tomorrow’s (March 24, 2026) Federal Register and will become effective on May 19, 2026. Covered entities must comply by May 19, 2028.

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A Hands-On Workshop in Incident Management Data Organization, Analysis, Risk Identification, and Action Planning for Providers and Supports Coordination Organizations (SCO)

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) invites providers and SCOs to register for its training workshop “From Data to Decisions.” Findings from the most recent Quality, Assessment & Improvement (QA&I) cycle identified opportunities for improvement in conducting and documenting incident management trend analyses in accordance with IM Bulletin 00-21-02. To support this effort, ODP is hosting training sessions focused on using available tools, strengthening the analysis and documentation, and using risk management strategies to identify risk and develop effective actions.

Registration is free, but pre-registration is required to attend.

If you are a provider, register for one of four available sessions by following the registration links below:

If you are SCO staff, register below:

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) has issued Announcement 26-034 reminding providers and Supports Coordination Organizations (SCO) of the annual training requirements under Chapter 6100. Key highlights include:

  • 24 hours annually required for Direct Support Professionals (DSP), Support Coordinators, life sharers, and their supervisors.
  • 12 hours annually required for administrative, management, and ancillary staff, as well as certain contractors, volunteers, and interns working independently with individuals.
  • Training must cover core topics, including person-centered practices, abuse prevention and reporting, individual rights, incident recognition, behavior supports (if applicable), and implementation of individual plans.
  • ODP offers free trainings via MyODP, many of which are NADSP-accredited and count toward credentialing.
  • Providers and SCOs must maintain detailed training records, and staff are responsible for retaining their own training transcripts.

Members are encouraged to review their current training practices to ensure full compliance with Chapter 6100 requirements.

Please direct any questions or feedback to Tim Sohosky.

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Please share these important workshops and support groups with your networks! Register here for upcoming events.

Good Life Group, Support Groups

Life Course Workshops

Waiver Workshops

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Training and Certification web header icon set learning academy certified qualification certificate of competence certified class web header illustration

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) has shared communication ODPANN 26-033, to announce that registration for the May – August 2026 CI Initial Certification Course cohorts is now open in MyODP.

To Register for a cohort of the Initial Certification course:

  • Log into your MyODP.org account.
  • Go to the Certified Investigator Initial Certification Course Information page.
  • Read the information on the page to ensure you understand certification eligibility and course completion requirements.
  • Follow the instructions on the “Certified Investigator Initial Certification Course Registration for May – August 2026” section of the page.

Please review the announcement for more details.

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