The Office of Community Living (OCL) within the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (Department) has the following information to share below:

Announcements:

• Announcing a Needs Assessment to Better Understand the Experiences of Coloradans with Brain Injury

• National Core Indicators—Aging and Disabilities Staff Stability Survey Closes on Oct. 31, 2022

• Dollars to Digitize American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) 6.06 Grant Program

Meetings:

• Children’s Disability Advisory Committee (CDAC)

• Community First Choice (CFC) Listening Session

Announcements

Announcing a Needs Assessment Survey to Better Understand the Experiences of Coloradans with Brain Injury

MINDSOURCE Brain Injury Network, a part of the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS), is conducting a Needs Assessment to better understand the experiences of Coloradans with brain injury.

On behalf of MINDSOURCE, the OMNI Institute is conducting a survey in both English and Spanish. MINDSOURCE and the OMNI Institute are especially interested in the experiences of individuals living in rural or frontier communities, those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+), and/or individuals from a race or ethnicity such as Hispanic/Latina/o/x or Alaska Native/American Indian.

Upon completion of the survey, individuals will also be invited to participate in focus groups. Incentives will be available!

Here is a link to the survey.

If you have any questions for OMNI, please contact them at braininjury@omni.org.

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National Core Indicators—Aging and Disabilities Staff Stability Survey Closes on Oct. 31, 2022

National Core Indicators (NICI) - Aging and Disabilities is conducting a pilot of the Staff Stability Survey, due to an increased interest for a reliable tool to capture state- and national-level data regarding the stability and challenges of the workforce supporting older adults and people with physical disabilities. Colorado will collect data from agencies who provide services such as Adult Day Services, Respite, Homemaker, Personal Care for the Elderly, Blind and Disabled (EBD), Community Mental Health Supports (CMHS), Complementary & Integrative Health (CIH), and Brain Injury (BI) Waivers.

The Staff Stability Survey is aimed to assess turnover, recruitment, hourly wages, vacancy rates, benefits, and length of employment related to the direct care workforce in hopes to expand the data infrastructure to better understand the current supply and demand for direct care workers, to track the impact of each investment strategy on recruitment, retention, and turnover, assist with establishing workforce initiatives and government partnerships, provide baseline data for future analysis, develop budget projections, and initiate policy planning.

The survey launched in September 2022, with a deadline for completion of Oct. 31, 2022. Agencies that meet survey criteria were notified of the survey via email which included an individualized link to complete the survey.

Please view our recent Informational Memo announcing the survey for more information. You can find more information on NCI Surveys in the OCL communication sent on Sept. 2, 2022, which highlighted the Department's NCI Survey Webpage.

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Dollars to Digitize ARPA 6.06 Grant Program

Calling all Medicaid-enrolled HCBS and behavioral health providers: Apply today to innovate your organization with new or enhanced digital technology! Visit the ARPA 6.06 Grant portion of the ARPA webpage or see the Dollars to Digitize flyer for more information on the grant program.

Upcoming Webinar: Join us for the ARPA 6.06 Grant Program webinar on Oct. 13, 2022, from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. MT. Register here for the event.

Meetings

Please find meeting announcements listed below. Other meeting information is on the OCL Stakeholder Engagement webpage.

Children’s Disability Advisory Committee (CDAC)

The CDAC serves in an advisory capacity to the Department and makes recommendations regarding issues related to benefits for children and youth with disabilities age 20 and younger, provider education interventions and application of standards. All interested stakeholders are welcome.

Meeting information is on the CDAC webpage.

The meeting will be held:

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022

10 a.m. - 12 p.m. MT

Join via Google Meet

Join via Phone:

650-667-2698, PIN: ‪194 068 900#

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CFC Listening Session

CFC Listening Sessions are informal opportunities for stakeholders to bring questions and have conversations with the Department about CFC. No new policy or technical processes will be announced during these Listening Sessions. These meetings will be held on the second Wednesday of the month at 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Interested stakeholders may include Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver recipients and older adult stakeholders.

The next meeting will be held:

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022

1:30-2:30 p.m. MT

Join via Google Meet

Join by Phone:

1-513-464-9325, PIN:  949 690 025#

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Reasonable accommodations will be provided upon request for persons with disabilities. Auxiliary aids and services for individuals with disabilities and language services for individuals whose first language is not English may be provided upon request. Please notify John Barry at 303-866-3173 or John.R.Barry@state.co.us or the 504/ADA Coordinator at hcpf504ada@state.co.us at least one week prior to the meeting to make arrangements.