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Authors Posts by Carol Ferenz

Carol Ferenz

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Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Executive Director, Shannon Austin provided guidance to community providers of Supported Employment Services about a rate increase for the provision of services during a period of state mandated mitigation strategies for slowing the spread of COVID-19 in a memo dated February 9, 2021.

For new Supported Employment purchase orders created on or after February 22, 2021, regional rates will be changed to statewide rates, and Job Retention Services will increase. Purchase orders created prior to February 22, 2021, will not be cancelled and re-authorized under the new rate.

The Supported Employment Support Plan, Employment Service Premium. Longevity Premium, Job Mentoring Services and all four phases of Discovery will remain unchanged.

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is reissuing Bulletin 00-21-01 to correct errors reported in Attachment 1: Services that Require Access to a Human Rights Team.

The corrections in this document are as follows:

  • In the list of services that require a provider to have access to a Human Rights Team:
    • Supports coordination has been removed from the list of services funded through the Consolidated, Community Living, or Person/Family Directed Support Waivers or base-funding.
    • Transitional Work Services has been removed from the list of services funded through the Adult Autism Waiver and replaced with Small Group Employment.
  • The list of services that do not require a provider to have access to a Human Rights Team funded through the Adult Autism Waiver has been expanded to include:
    • Vehicle Modifications
    • Home Modifications
    • Public Transportation

Attachment 2: Individual Plans and Informed Consent remains unchanged.

Photo by Alena Shekhovtcova from Pexels

The National Forum on COVID-19 vaccine is a virtual event that will unite representatives from across the US government with tribal, state, local, and territorial leaders and representatives from public health, health-care systems, national and community-based non-governmental organizations, and education, private industry, union, and faith-based organizations. All have a role in supporting COVID-19 vaccination.

The forum aims to promote the most effective strategies to build trust and confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, use data to optimize vaccine implementation, and provide participants with practical information for increasing vaccine access in communities nationwide, especially for persons at increased risk of contracting the COVID-19 disease and those who may face barriers to vaccination. Please register here.

Resource:

About the National Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine | CDC

The purpose of Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) Announcement 21-015 is to inform supports coordination organizations (SCOs) enrolled to provide services through the Adult Autism Waiver (AAW) of a new orientation curriculum on MyODP. ODP has developed an updated orientation curriculum for new supports coordinators (SCs) and SC supervisors who work with AAW participants. This orientation replaces the SC101 and SC102 orientation trainings that were previously required.

Starting on February 1, 2021, new SCs must complete the updated AAW SC Orientation within 30 days of hire and before they work independently with an individual or an individual’s family. If an SC supervisor provides SC services independently for an individual or an individual’s family, the SC supervisor must complete the updated AAW SC Orientation within 30 days of hire and before they work independently with an individual or an individual’s family.

The new AAW SC Orientation can be reached at MyODP by following this chain: MyODP > Training > Autism Training > Adult Autism Programs (AAW/ACAP) > Supports Coordination Trainings. Users who do not have an account with MyODP will need to create one. This page can be viewed by the public. However, the SC or SC supervisor completing the SC Orientation needs to be logged in as their role in order to obtain verification of completion and training certificates.

ODP will release additional specifics on the AAW SC Orientation in the future. Please direct any questions about this announcement to this contact.

ODP Announcement 21-020 informs stakeholders of upcoming webinars regarding the soon to be released Incident Management (IM) Bulletin. ODP will be releasing the new IM Bulletin on March 1, 2021, and following the release, ODP will be presenting IM webinars as part of a larger training series that pertains to the bulletin and IM practices.

ODP will host two webinars as part of an IM training series. As part of this series, the first two webinars that are open for stakeholders to register are titled the Incident Management Introduction Webinar and the Incident Management Overview Webinar. The overall goal of the IM training series, including the webinars, is to ensure the standardization of knowledge, concepts, and operational practices identified in the IM Bulletin to protect and promote the health, safety, and rights of all individuals.

The content of the IM training series meets the Orientation and Annual Training requirements specific to recognizing and reporting incidents as indicated in 55 Pa. Code Sections 6100.142 and 6100.143. IM requirements are identified in the following 55 Pa. Code Chapters:

  • 6100 (All services);
  • 6400 (Community Homes);
  • 6500 (Life Sharing);
  • 2380 (Adult Training Facilities); and
  • 2390 (Vocational Training Facilities).

Additional trainings and webcasts as part of the larger IM training series related to the IM bulletin will be released in the near future. The upcoming topics will include recognition and reporting as well as how to respond to an incident.

Due to the importance of these webinars and the number of stakeholders that will be impacted by this IM Bulletin, each webinar will be repeated three times on three different days (three times for the Incident Management Introduction Webinar and three times for the Incident Management Overview Webinar) with the same content. Therefore, ODP is requesting stakeholders to only register for one Incident Management Introduction webinar session and one Incident Management Overview webinar session, due to the number of stakeholders who will need to participate. One recorded session of each webinar in the series will be made available on MyODP for future viewing.

For registration for the first two webinars, see ODP Announcement 21-020.