John's usual excuses & apologies--
There is quite a bit going on this week, both for me personally and also for CLI more generally. I am driving my daughter (my youngest of 2 kids) to college in Florida this Tuesday. That's a big deal for me because I'm sending her out in the world outside my immediate ability to protect her AND because it means a significant status change for me. For the past 20 years, outside of work anyway, I've been mostly known as Graeme and/or Lily's dad. Now I'm just another old guy clogging up traffic. Transitions are bittersweet. I'm both looking forward to making more choices around what I feel like doing-- and I'm grieving a little bit at the loss of what I'm leaving behind. It's interesting how normal it is to miss the significance and lasting effects of all the adult transition points of friends, coworkers, clients, etc. around us. But when it happens to you, it feels existential.
Luckily the rest of CLI will be hard at it this week while I'm getting misty behind the wheel on the long drive south and back. CLI is trying to spend as much time as possible engaging with others outdoors while the weather permits. We are concerned about the rise in Delta Variant COVID cases. We're continuing to wear masks in vehicles and indoors. The Huron County Health Department advised last week that they believe that there is going to be a spike in cases over the next 2-3 weeks. Keep your guard up!
Assuming that Ohio's DD system will continue to open up and return to regular services-- there is a lot of discussion about what that should look like. It's been almost 10 years since Ohio changed its rules saying that we should push employment first and segregated services weren't going be allowed in 10 years. Funny how quickly that goes. You can pretty much get me to agree to anything if you make it far enough in the future. My son used to tell me when I nagged him about some later obligation/consequence-- "that's a problem for future Graeme."
Well, this is future us and the system (which is all of us) is scrambling to figure out what it's supposed to look like. One thing is for sure-- services will need to be much more outcome-oriented. Now with the mandate for smaller, community-integrated group sizes vs. the 1:12 staff to client ratio in the segregated workshop-- the billing rates will have to rise proportionately. That is assuming that we can even hire enough qualified staff to do anything. From a client & funder perspective-- if they are using more of their money to buy fewer hours of service-- then those services better effectively achieve the desired outcomes. Getting maximum value for every dollar spent is more important than ever. I don't think that expecting value for your money is a bad thing.
Anyway, enjoy your week, stay safe & keep washing those hands!
John
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