ANCOR’s DSP for a Day Campaign
Budget Reconciliation Negotiations Continue
2022 DSP Recognition Week is September 11–17 — Here’s Everything You Need to Celebrate!
Community Supports in Crisis: No Staff, No Services
The system of services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) has come a long way in the last 30 years — from segregated care in remote institutions to a robust and varied network of community supports. This progress took decades and was not inevitable. It was achieved through persistent advocacy on multiple levels. It took lifting the voices of people with disabilities and family members, litigation and legal action to secure rights, federal legislation that codified the values of inclusion and access, and building a body of research and evidence-based best practices.
All the progress toward community living that has been made in services for people with IDD over decades is now in jeopardy — because of catastrophic labor shortages and pervasive high turnover rates in the workforce that supports them, direct support professionals (DSPs). This white paper from the Institute of Community Integration (ICI) and its partners at the Human Services Research Institute and the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services provides an overview of the depth of the crisis in the workforce and the impact on people with IDD and sounds the alarm about the nature and scope of the workforce crisis in the IDD service system.
Small Business Ownership by People With Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities — Webinar on July 28
RCPA Member APA Survey Overview
Disability Pride Pittsburgh to Celebrate 32nd Anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act — July 23
Self-Assessment for Modification of Anti-Racism Tool (SMART) — Free DEI Webinar Tomorrow, July 19
Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Time: 11:30 am – 12:45 pm EDT
Sponsor: The College for Behavioral Health Leadership
Offered in partnership with the American Association for Community Psychiatrists
This webinar is open to all.
This webinar will introduce participants to the Self-Assessment for Modification of Anti-Racism Tool (SMART), an innovative self-directed quality improvement tool developed by the American Association for Community Psychiatry (AACP) to assist community mental health organizations in addressing structural racism. The presenters will describe the process by which SMART was developed, including its grounding in input from community mental health providers and existing health inequity frameworks. The domains and items of SMART, as well as its application process, will be outlined. Presenters will also provide lessons from on-the-ground applications of SMART in diverse community mental health settings.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Describe the relevance of and importance of addressing structural racism in the community mental health setting;
- Understand the 5 domains of the Self-Assessment for Modification of Anti-Racism Tool (SMART), including literature evidence supporting the selection of SMART’s domains and items; and
- Understand the on-the-ground experience of applying SMART in diverse community mental health settings.
Harrisburg Partnership Teaches Workplace Skills to Young People With Disabilities: RCPA Member Goodwill Keystone Area Quoted
Federal PHE Extended to October 13, 2022
The Biden administration on Friday, July 15, 2022, extended the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) for another three months. US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra officially renewed the declaration, extending it through October 13, 2022. The extensions include the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) standards governing the delivery of services via telehealth.
If you have additional questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.
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