222 South Warren Street
Trenton, NJ 08625
Contact: Pam Ronan
Ed Rogan
(609) 292-3703
RELEASE:
December 15, 2003
Previous Screen
Commissioner Harris to Honor Parents for
Designing New Option for People with Disabilities
Trenton- Department of Human Services Commissioner
Gwendolyn L. Harris today honored family members to mark the implementation
of a new program, called “Real Life Choices,” designed
to offer services to people with developmental disabilities who
live with their families. The event was held at 1 p.m., at the
DHS building, 222 S. Warren Street, Trenton, where the Commissioner
Harris praised the program for it’s innovation and thanked
the parents for their efforts to design this new option in services.
The honorees are members of a committee guiding the development
and implementation of the new service option for families on the
Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) waiting list.
Real Life Choices offers families the choice of the type of
services, as well as the provider of the services, for their
family member with a developmental disability living at home.
“Many of these family members have been advocating for
options other than group homes, and they came to the table with
excellent ideas,” said Commissioner Harris. “They
have done a remarkable job to fine-tune this new service option
for the division.”
Commissioner Harris awarded Certificates of Recognition to:
Ellie Byra, Flemington Gail Frizzell, Branchville
Lorraine D'Sylva Lee, Changewater Marilyn Kuna, Somerset
Walter Fernandez, Barnegat Mary Knuer, Farmingdale
Regina Tegler, Bridgewater Eileen Coyne, Brick
Natalie Trump, Brick Monique Wilson, Freehold
Debbie Flanagan, Egg Harbor City
Real Life Choices:
- Gives families a choice of services and supports.
- Increases services for people with developmental disabilities
living at home.
- Includes lifelong planning for individuals with developmental
disabilities.
- Increases federal reimbursements to be reinvested in more
services.
The Commissioner directed the Division to develop a new approach
to delivering services following a review of the entire service
system for people with developmental disabilities. The review
concluded that the state’s service system for people with
developmental disabilities was not equitable.
“The majority of DDD resources were supporting residential
programs, while the majority of the division’s consumers
live at home and receive little or no services,” said
Commissioner Harris. At the time of the study, only 7 % of the
DDD budget was paying for services for 18,000 individuals living
with their families, while 92% paid for services to 9,800 people
in residential programs.
“After assessing the entire system, it was clear that
people taking care of relatives in their homes were not getting
their fair share of resources. We need to make sure that group
homes and supervised apartments are available to people who
really want them but we also need to offer other services as
well,” said Harris. “In short, we needed a new option
for families.”
Included in the review, were the results of interviews with
families on the DDD waiting list. "The majority of these
families have told us they would prefer to keep their loved
one at home, for as long as possible,” said Harris. “Our
job is to provide the needed supports that enable families who
choose to care for their loved one in their own home.”
A plan was announced to address the inequities and more appropriately
meet the needs of people on the division’s waiting list
for services in September 2002.
-
The plan called for more types of services. These include:
devices to assist individuals to remain in their homes through
the use of technology for speech, lifting and mobility; personal
care or respite care to help provide a break for family caregivers;
and programs to attend during the day to learn personal or employment
skills.
- To fund additional services, the plan calls for increasing
the amount of money reimbursed to the state by the federal government
for the cost of services:
- DDD is working to ensure consumers are eligible for Medicaid,
enabling the division to claim 50% of the costs in services
from the federal government. Maximizing federal reimbursement
programs could bring in an additional $30 million to reinvest
in more services.
- People receiving residential services will be asked to contribute
more, up to 75% of their federal SSI benefits to the cost of
their room and board, freeing up funds to be used for another
person who needs services.
DDD currently provides services to approximately 33,500 people
with developmental disabilities, including 7,200 who live in
various types of homes with some state-funded supports and 3,200
persons who reside in the state operated developmental centers,
and more than 21,000 people who live at home with their families.
The DDD FY’04 total appropriation is $1,121,109,000 ($664,294,000
is state funds).
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