Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration Creating a flexible, person-centered, family-oriented system of supports so people can have full lives.

DDA Transformation Update The DDA Transformation Newsletter | May 21, 2018 8

Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)

The LTSS System for DDA has been designed and developed to help improve and streamline existing processes. Coordinators of Community Services (CCS) are in the process of training and will begin using LTSS to document most of their daily activities with the first release of LTSS, scheduled for August 1, 2018. These improvements should help CCSs focus more on services for people than on administrative tasks, such as billing. Through these regular newsletters, DDA will spotlight specific functionality starting with how LTSS will streamline CCC’s billing of work.

Benefit to the CCS Coordinators: Simplifies tracking of complete billing for a given day Helps ensure that activities are not input for overlapping time periods Streamlines supervision and increases transparency of work performed by CCS

Functionality Spotlight: My Daily Activity Tab The My Daily Activity Tab is a calendar view of all work performed in a day for people. This operates in much the same way as an electronic calendar. Using the My Daily Activity Tab, shown below, a CCS can input and track their daily activities for billing within LTSS. Once a CCS completes an activity for a person, the CCS will be able to input the time spent on that activity into LTSS by simply clicking on the calendar. Existing activities can be directly edited or viewed for follow-up from the My Daily Activity Tab.

At the end of the day, a CCS will be able to view the Daily Activity Log to see what activities they performed that day for all persons they have served . A daily view of activities helps CCSs avoid entering service activities for overlapping periods of time and streamlines complete billing.

The Mandt System ® The DDA is excited to implement the Mandt System as part of our transition to a person-centered behavior supports system. Starting in April 2018, the DDA began offering Mandt "train-the-trainer" sessions in the Western and Southern regions and followed by Central and Eastern regions. As of June 1, 2018, 49 agencies have participated in the Mandt training sessions. These trainings will occur over the next six months until all 350 trainers have had the train the trainer sessions. Once agencies have certified trainers, they can begin to train direct support professionals and other personnel in the principles of Mandt, which include a relationship-based approach, utilizing trauma-informed care and positive behavioral supports to deter maladaptive behaviors.

Supporting Families

The Maryland CoP for Supporting Families Statewide Leadership Team is hosting Maryland’s Annual Community of Practice (CoP) Meeting June 12 – 13, 2018. Consultants from the National CoP will meet with the leadership team, local CoP facilitators, and the DDA regional office family support lead staff to review the previous year’s work and identify next steps for the coming year. The focus is on building and sustaining Maryland’s Local CoP. National members will share best practices with the leadership team and the local CoPs to develop strategies to strengthen their teams, sustain their work and launch new CoPs. Currently, Maryland has seven local CoPs. They include Baltimore, Harford, Frederick, Garrett, Montgomery and Washington Counties, and the Lower Eastern Shore. The goal of Maryland CoP Statewide Leadership Team is to launch a local CoP in each county/city in Maryland for a total of twenty-four.

Charting the LifeCourse Ambassador Educational Series

The National Community of Practice for Supporting Families offers the Charting the LifeCourse Ambassador Educational Series on an annual basis. The series covers Charting the LifeCourse Framework and core principles immersing participants in both theory and application on personal, local and statewide levels. Upon completion, participants are prepared to share the message of the framework and core principles with others in their state to strengthen the foundational work of their state CoP. While completed at the participant’s pace it requires significant time and work. The Maryland CoP Statewide Leadership Team congratulates the following Marylanders (each a facilitator of their local CoP) who completed the 2018 Ambassador Series: Tonia Ferguson (Baltimore County) Rachel Harbin (Harford County) Nataly Saah (Frederick County) Babette Smith (Garrett County) Cindy Kauffman (Montgomery County) Donne Allen (Montgomery County) Sarah Thornton (Washington County) Shereese Maynard (Lower Eastern Shore) Debbie Balea (Lower Eastern Shore) The Maryland Statewide Leadership Team is grateful for the time, energy and commitment these facilitators have shown. These skills will help them continue to support people with developmental disabilities and their families across the lifespan.

Employment Non-residential Final Settings Rule Validation

DDA regional office and headquarters staff have been expediting site visits for provider organizations who wish to provide non-residential, site-based services under the new Community Supports Waiver (CSW) for Transitioning Youth. Providers that wish to provide licensed site services under the CSW require compliance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) Final Settings Rule prior to service delivery. Provider organizations already providing site-based services under the Community Pathways Waiver (CPW) have until March 2022 to come into compliance with the final rule. Beginning this month, DDA staff will be expanding visits to include all non-residential providers to validate results submitted by providers through self-assessments in late 2016. Site visits will include use of a validation tool that was developed based on the CMS requirements and input from the State DDA Transition Advisory Team. Following each site visit, a report will be shared directly with the agency executive director and will include any recommendations for coming into compliance.  For more information on the Settings Rule, click here .

Waiver Services Coordinators of Community Services (CCS) continue to meet with people and their families who are candidates for waiver enrollment. As of June 1, 2018, of the 978 current waiver packets that have been completed and submitted to the Eligibility Determination Division (EDD) in the regions, 591 people have been approved for waiver enrollment.

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