Families Helping Families of Greater Baton Rouge

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Welcome to LaCANs Legislative Advocacy
Training
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Louisiana Developmental Disabilities
CouncilLaCANFamilies Helping Families
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Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council

• Advocacy Organization
• Federally Funded and Authorized
• Promotes Systems Change

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LaCANLouisiana Citizens for Action Now!

• Grassroots Advocacy Network
• 10 Regional Teams
• Advocates for Community and Family Supports

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Families Helping Families

• Family Directed Resource Centers
• Information and Referral
• Peer to Peer Support
• Education and Training

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1988

• Institutional System
• Residential or Facility Based Services

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1988 DD Council Conference

• Introduced Family Support and Supported Living to
  Louisiana

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• LaCAN was created to pass Act 378 and
• the Community and Family Support Movement was
  born.
• Now that we have all of this paper full of good
  ideas on the wallswhat are we going to do about
  it?
• Mike Vasko, Shreveport Parent

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• Act 378 of 1989
• Calls for the development of a plan for a
  system of community and family supports and
  implementation of the plan by the La. Dept. of
  Health and Hospitals.
• Specifies that services to persons with
  developmental disabilities should be responsive
  to the needs of individuals and their families,
  rather than fitting people into existing
  programs.
• Directs the DD Council to develop the plan
  based on two guiding principles and lists an
  array of community and family supports to be made
  available to families and adults.
• Includes time frames for the development and
  implementation of the plan.

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GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Children, regardless of the severity of their
  disability, need families and enduring
  relationships with adults in a nurturing home
  environment. As with all children, children with
  developmental disabilities need families and
  family relationships to develop to their fullest
  potential.

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GUIDING PRINCIPLES Contd.

• Adults with developmental disabilities should be
  afforded the opportunity to make decisions for
  themselves and to live in typical homes and
  communities where they can exercise their full
  rights and responsibilities as citizens.

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Office for Citizens with Developmental
Disabilities (OCDD)

• ACT 378 Services
• Cash Subsidy 258 per month
• Children with the most severe disabilities
• Individual/Family Support
• Purchase of goods and services, based on need
• Information and Support
• Families Helping Families

• Other Major Services
• Vocational/Employment Services
• Early Intervention
• Assertive Community Treatment Teams
• State Developmental Centers

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Office of Mental Health (OMH)

• Act 378 Services
• Cash Subsidy 258 per month
• Children with serious emotional disturbance
• Family Support Services
• Purchase of goods and services,based on need
• Supported Living Services

• Other Major Services
• Psychiatric Rehab. Services (Medicaid)
• Community Mental Health Centers
• Housing Resources
• Crisis Management Services
• Day programs and Psychosocial Rehab. Programs
• Hospital Based Services
• Case Management
• Assertive Community Treatment Teams

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Louisiana Rehabilitation Services (LRS)

• Act 378 Services
• Supported Living Services

• Other Major Services
• Employment and Training Services
• Independent Living Services
• Traumatic Head Spinal Cord Injury Services
• Blind Services

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Bureau of Community Supports Services (BCSS)

• Act 378 Services
• MR/DD Home and Community Based Waiver

• Other Major Services
• Childrens Choice Waiver
• PCA Waiver
• Elderly and Disabled Waiver
• Adult Day Health Care Waiver

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Bureau of Health Services Financing (Medicaid)

• Early, periodic screening, diagnosis and
  treatment (EPSDT) - Preventative and all
  medically necessary services for Medicaid
  eligible children under age 21 including dental,
  extended home health, personal care services, and
  eyeglasses.
• LaCHIP
• ICFs/MR
• Nursing Homes

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Childrens Special Health Services (CSHS)

• Specialized Clinic Services

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La. Developmental Disabilities Council

• Act 378
• Information Support
• Families Helping Families
• Federation of Families for Childrens Mental
  Health
• Supported Living Services
• Adults with Physical Disabilities

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LaCANs Accomplishments Act 378
Passed Community Family Support System Plan
Approved, Funded Implemented 15 Million
in State Funds 160 Million in Federal Funds
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1844 Children receiving Cash Subsidy 1636
receiving Individual/Family Support 700
Families receiving Consumer Care Resources 4576
Funded MR/DD Waiver Slots 39 Adults in Supported
Living thru OMH 36 Adults in Supported Living
thru LRS DDC Families Helping Families
Funded Federation of Families Funded
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Act 1147 Passed SCR5 Freedom of Choice
Passed Waiver Rewrite Submitted Funded
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Act 1147 of 2001

• Amended Act 378
• Reinforced Guiding Principles in Act 378
• Expanded populations served to include persons of
  all ages with disabilities

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..Act 1147

• Called for the formation of Disability
  Services and Supports System Planning Group
  (DSSS) and a Consumer Task Force (CTF) to develop
  a proposal to reform the long term support
  system. This proposal shall be submitted to DHH
  and to the Senate and House Committees on Health
  and Welfare.

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Act 1147

• Called for DHH and the Governors Office on
  Disability Affairs to apply for a Real Choice
  Systems Change grant that funds state systems
  change to promote the design and delivery of home
  and community-based services that support
  individuals with a disability or chronic illness
  to live and participate in their communities.

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LaCANs 2003 Legislative Agenda

• New Waiver Slots
• 250,000 Families Helping Families
• Other?

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What Can I Do?

• Visit Legislators - Build Personal Relationships
• Join LaCANs List Serve
• Respond to Action Alerts
• Write Letters to Legislators
• Make Phone Calls
• Attend Legislative Hearings in Baton Rouge
• Write to the Newspaper

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• The hottest places in hell are reserved for
  those who, in times of great moral crisis,
  maintain their neutrality.
• Dante

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• Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe?
• Experience asks the question, Is it politic?
• Vanity asks the question? Is it popular?
• But Conscience asks the question, Is it right?
• And there comes a time when
• one must take a position that is
• neither safe, nor politic, nor popular,
• but it must be made because
• conscience says that it is right.
• Martin Luther King, Jr.

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• To sin by silence when they should protest makes
  cowards of men
• Lincoln