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Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities

Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) are one of the critical groups at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. To show our appreciation, MITC is giving away $5,000 to 13 hardworking and dedicated DSPs who are nominated by someone from their agency.
– 1 prize of $1,000
– 2 prizes of $500
– 10 prizes of $300

MITC values the hard work put forth by DSPs every day and is hoping to show our appreciation through these prizes! The deadline to nominate a DSP is Saturday, July 31, 2021. MITC will share the awardees’ stories during DSP Recognition Week in September 2021.

Nominate Your DSP here.

Attached are the resources that were issued during last week’s virtual office hours regarding changes to the Enterprise Incident Management (EIM) system that will be effective July 1, 2021.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created a new COVID-19 Viral Testing tool. This interactive and mobile-friendly online tool will help to streamline the process of sorting through information about COVID-19 testing and next steps. The tool complements the CDC’s testing guidance and assists healthcare providers in making decisions and recommendations for their patients about the following:

  • Whether to order testing;
  • What kind of test to order;
  • How to interpret the test result;
  • What to do with conflicting test results;
  • Whether confirmatory (follow-up) testing is necessary; and
  • How vaccination affects decisions for testing.

On Friday, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed SB255, the 2021–22 General Appropriations bill, by a vote of 140-61 in the House and a vote of 43-7 in the Senate.

The accompanying budget code bills also passed on Friday. The Tax Code Bill, HB952, passed 46-4 in the Senate, 170-31 in the House. The Administrative Code, HB336, passed 28-22 in the Senate, 112-89 in the House, and the Fiscal Code, HB1348, passed 42-8 in the Senate and 168-33 in the House. The final code bill, the Public School Code, SB381, passed 154-47 in the House and 40-10 in the Senate.

The planned General Fund budget will spend $40.2 billion, which includes some Federal stimulus monies. The budget only appropriates approximately $2 billion out of the $7.3 billion in federal stimulus dollars. The state Department of Human Services (DHS) budget line-items are set to grow by $1.8 billion, or 11.7 percent.

While not everyone in the General Assembly was happy with the end product, the Governor is expected to sign the budget bills before June 30.

For your convenience, RCPA has compiled a summary of the Administrative and Fiscal Codes and a breakdown of the specific DHS line-items relevant to RCPA members. As more information comes to light concerning how DHS will spend these appropriations on health and human service programs, RCPA will update the membership.

If you have any questions, please contact Jack Phillips, Director of Government Affairs.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Please see the letter below published jointly by the Office of Developmental Programs and the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services regarding the hiring of Donald Clark as the new Project Director for the Pennsylvania START Program:


June 25, 2021

Colleagues and Stakeholders,

It is with pleasure that we announce the hiring of Mr. Donald Clark as a Project Director to lead our dual systems initiative of the highly anticipated pilot of PA START. Don holds a Master of Education from Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. He served as the Deputy Director of the Allegheny County Office of Intellectual Disabilities for more than 20 years, the Acting Deputy Mental Health Administrator for Allegheny County on an interim basis and has worked closely with the behavioral health and hospital systems in the western region. In addition, he has experience in the management of Community Residential Programs, along with numerous recognitions and awards.

The START model is a crisis intervention and prevention program designed to support individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism (ID/A) and co-occurring mental health challenges. National data surrounding this program demonstrates significant outcomes and cost-effective system improvements.

Funding for the pilot is being provided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Money Follows the Person (MFP) program which offered a unique opportunity to apply for supplemental funding for capacity building efforts. The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) and the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) partnered to present the PA START pilot. Pennsylvania was one of the first states to apply and receive this award.

In his role as the Project Director for START, Mr. Clark will be working with diverse stakeholder groups, the University of New Hampshire/Center for START Services and Allegheny County.

Please join us in a warm welcome to Don to the ODP/OMHSAS team!

Sincerely,


Kristin Ahrens
Deputy Secretary
Office of Developmental Programs

Kristen Houser
Deputy Secretary
Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

This webinar will discuss vaccine hesitancy among direct service workers (DSWs), explore barriers they face, including access to information and transportation, and offer strategies to help increase vaccination rates.

Panelists:

  • Cory Nourie: Director of Community Services, Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services
  • Ramu Iyer: National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals Advisory Council Member
  • Robert Espinoza: Vice President of Policy, PHI
  • Trudy Rebert: Federal Policy Counsel, National Domestic Workers Alliance

This webinar will be held on Thursday, July 1, 2021 from 3:00 pm–4:30 pm ET.

Click here to register.

Patient Selection and Neurosurgical Decision-Making to Treat Hypertonia in Children with Cerebral Palsy: Who is a Good Candidate and Which Procedures are Helpful?  

Thursday, August 5, 2021
1:00 pm–2:00 pm EDT, 12:00 pm–1:00 pm CDT
11:00 am–12:00 pm MDT, 10:00 am–11:00 am PDT

Dr. Marcie Ward, Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine
Dr. Patrick Graupman, Pediatric Neurosurgery
Dr. Tim Feyma, Pediatric Neurology
Laura Area, PT, Pediatric Physical Therapy

Course Description:
Management of hypertonicity in children with cerebral palsy is multifaceted. Join us as this multi-disciplinary team from Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, Minnesota discusses the neurosurgical options, considerations, and best practices for treatment of this condition.

Disclosures/Conflicts of Interest:
The presentation team are all employed by Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare and did not receive any compensation for this presentation. The team has no relevant financial disclosures.

Objectives: At the end of the session, the learner will:

  • Describe the history of surgical rhizotomy and other surgical treatments which guide the application procedures in current clinical practice;
  • Understand the importance of careful patient selection for surgical procedures based on patient and family goals, neuroanatomy principles, and the predictability of outcomes; and
  • Identify atypical patient presentations that may benefit from selective dorsal rhizotomy and other procedures and discuss anticipated outcomes.

Audience: This webinar is intended for all members of the rehabilitation team, including medical staff, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, licensed psychologists, mental health professionals, and other interested professionals.

Level: Intermediate

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

Registration: Registration is complimentary for members of IPRC/RCPA. Registration fee for non-members is $179. Not a member yet? Consider joining today. Multiple registrations per organization are permitted.

REGISTER here.

The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved the renewal of the OBRA Waiver for 2021. The waiver had no substantive changes and will become effective on July 1, 2021. The OBRA renewal will be posted to the OBRA web page by July 1, 2021. Questions about this renewal should be directed to the OLTL Bureau of Policy Development and Communications Management at (717) 857-3280.