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Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities

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Photo by Copernico on Unsplash

The PA Family Network has a wonderful series of events happening this March — five in-person Summits on Emergency Preparedness. These summits will be regional — happening in York, Wilkes/Barre, State College, Philadelphia, and Cranberry — and will provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities, families, and interested individuals to learn more about Emergency Preparedness, Safety, Interactions with First Responders, and more.

There will be no fee to attend, and breakfast and lunch will be provided. Each day will be from 8:30 am – 4:00 pm.

The locations and dates of these events are:

  • March 15, 2023: South Central — Wyndham Garden York
  • March 20, 2023: Central — Penn Stater, State College
  • March 21, 2023: West — Pittsburgh Marriot North
  • March 23, 2023: Northeast — Mohegan Sun Casino, Wilkes-Barre
  • March 27, 2023: Southeast — Rivers Casino Philadelphia

For more information and to register for your local summit, visit here.

Seminar sessions each day will include:

  • Interacting With Law Enforcement
  • Tools to Use Before an Emergency
  • I-PREPARE: Make a Plan Using This Unique Tool Created by a Self-Advocate
  • Emergency Management & Red Cross: Not Just for Large-Scale Disasters
  • Panel Discussion and Q&A With Local First Responders Police/Ambulance (EMS)/Fire/Emergency Management Agency

Important Information:

  • Support Staff are welcome and encouraged to attend!
  • Breakfast and Lunch will be provided for FREE.
  • If you’re a family member/self-advocate and are driving/taking public transportation, a travel stipend will be available at the event. Limitations apply, one per household.
  • Lunchtime birthday celebration! Let us know if you have one you’d like us to acknowledge when you register!
  • Spanish interpretation will be available.
  • Resource Area, Wellness Lounge, and Technology Lab will be open for the duration of the event.
  • FREE to-go emergency bag, at $100 value, for eligible waiver participants.
  • Every attendee will be entered to win door prizes!

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Workers Who Serve People With Disabilities Must Earn More
By Richard Edley, RCPA President/CEO
Read the print version in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, January 19, 2023

Providers who care for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism (ID/A) are being pummeled by a workforce shortage driven by low wages and high vacancy and turnover rates.

RCPA partnered with The Arc of Pennsylvania and The Provider Alliance to have the Center for Healthcare Solutions examine the state’s ID/A workforce. The survey evaluated critical data on pay practices, hourly wages, scheduled positions, filled positions and separations for more than 9,000 employees representing 40 positions in 52 organizations.

The findings are stark.

Wages for direct support professionals who help ID/A children and adults with their basic daily living needs average $16.61 per hour, less than some fast-food restaurants. The turnover rate for DSPs is 38%, with providers reporting a vacancy rate of 28%. The numbers are similar for other residential and program supervisors.

The study also found that 14% of all DSP hours are paid at an overtime rate, and 41% of providers are now engaged in a more costly practice of contracting for staffing services to manage the workforce shortage.

Because human services like ID/A are funded primarily by Medicaid, providers cannot raise prices like private businesses to pay higher wages. So chronic underfunding by the state only
exacerbates these operational challenges.

ID/A providers simply do not have the staff they need to serve the thousands of Pennsylvanians receiving or waiting for critical services.

This is a system that is strained past its breaking point, and it needs our support now.

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ODP Announcement 23-008 announces that the amendment to the Adult Autism Waiver (AAW), effective January 1, 2023, was approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on January 13, 2023. The amendment to the AAW includes the following substantive changes:

  • Adding reserved waiver capacity for individuals who are discharged from a state center or are released from incarceration after a period of at least six consecutive months.
  • Aligning of provider qualifications in the AAW with the Consolidated, Community Living, and Person/Family Directed Support (P/FDS) waivers, whenever possible.
  • Allowing relatives to deliver the Life Sharing component of the Residential Habilitation service.
  • Requiring that agencies that provide Residential Habilitation/Life Sharing be qualified and enrolled to provide Residential Habilitation/Life Sharing in the Consolidated or Community Living waivers.
  • Increasing the annual fiscal limit in the Transportation service to $5,000 per participant’s Individual Support Plan (ISP) year.
  • Allowing one of the four required individual monitorings conducted by the Supports Coordinator each year to be conducted remotely. NOTE: For all individuals receiving Residential Habilitation (Community Homes or Life Sharing), remote monitorings are not permitted. See ODP Announcement 22-085 for additional information.
  • Allowing delivery of direct services using remote technology (teleservices). The requirements in the AAW will become effective when Appendix K flexibilities expire, six months after the expiration of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency.
  • Aligning the Assistive Technology service, where possible, with the Consolidated, Community Living, and P/FDS waivers. This includes adding generators for the participant’s primary residence.
  • Adding a new service, Remote Supports. A separate communication will be published in the coming weeks, providing instructions about how to add new Remote Supports procedure codes to ISPs. Remote Supports should not be added to ISPs until this communication is published.

The waiver application approved by CMS and the record of change document are available here.

ODP will be holding a webinar to discuss major changes made in the approved AAW amendment. Webinars specific to Remote Supports will be scheduled and communicated in the coming weeks. The date, time, and registration link for the general AAW amendment webinar are as follows:

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By The Times-Tribune

Editor: Providers who care for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism are pummeled by a workforce shortage driven by low wages and high vacancy and turnover rates.

The Arc of Pennsylvania recently partnered with other social service associations to get a better picture of the state’s workforce in the field.

The survey evaluated critical data on pay practices, hourly wages, scheduled positions, filled positions and separations for more than 9,000 employees representing 40 different positions in 52 organizations, including many in Northeast Pennsylvania.

The findings are stark.

Wages for direct support professionals who help children and adults with their basic daily living needs average $16.61 per hour — less than wages at some fast-food restaurants. The turnover rate for direct support workers is 38% with providers reporting a vacancy rate of 28%. The numbers are similar for other residential and program supervisors.

The study also found that 14% of all direct support professionals’ hours are paid at an overtime rate, and 41% of providers now engage in a more costly practice of contracting for staffing services to manage the workforce shortage.

Because human services for those with intellectual disabilities and autism are funded primarily by Medicaid, providers cannot raise prices like private businesses to pay higher wages. So, chronic underfunding by the state only exacerbates these operational challenges.

Service providers simply do not have the staff they need to serve thousands of Pennsylvanians receiving or waiting for critical services. This is a system that is strained past its breaking point, and it needs our support now.

SHERRI LANDIS
THE ARC OF PENNSYLVANIA
HARRISBURG

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Image by Dirk Wouters from Pixabay

Who We Are: Powered by People in PA is one of two Pennsylvania-based teams selected to participate in The National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) self-direction learning collaborative. We are a diverse team that includes a supports brokerage, Supports Brokers, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), people with disabilities with expertise and lived experience to share, family members, a representative of our state Office of Developmental Programs, a Pennsylvania Agency with Choice, and a member of our vendor-fiscal advisory committee.

What We Seek to Accomplish: The goal of the learning collaborative is to promote high-quality self-direction on both a state and national level. Our learning collaborative seeks to recruit and train Support Service Professionals, Supports Brokers, and Peer Mentors to support self-direction.

We developed four (4) surveys to gather feedback from stakeholders about the training needs of Supports Brokers. The feedback will be used to inform recommendations to the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) for a Supports Broker Recertification training curriculum.

What We Need from You: We are asking stakeholders to complete the survey that is relevant to their role. The survey is anonymous and will take less than 10 minutes to complete.

Select the appropriate link below to complete the survey:

The surveys will open on January 2, 2023, and close on February 3, 2023.

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