INDIVIDUALIZED SERVICES IN NEW YORK STATE: AN INTRODUCTION

INDIVIDUALIZED SERVICES IN NEW YORK STATE:
AN INTRODUCTION

by Steven J. Taylor

Just a few years ago, one would have been hard-pressed to find positive examples of individualized services for people with developmental disabilities in New York State. While New York has ranked as one of the nation's leading states in the depopulation of public institutions, this occurred primarily by moving people into relatively large facilities in the community. From 1980 to 1993, the number of people living in New York's developmental centers declined sharply from 15,140 to 4,307 (Mangan, Blake, Prouty, & Lakin, 1994). Yet as other states began to support individualized services during this period with funding from the federal Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver, New York continued to develop traditional alternatives such as relatively large community residences and Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICFs/MR).

Beginning in the 1990s, successive Commissioners of New York's Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) expressed a commitment not only to deinstitutionalization, but to the development of individualized services as well. With support from the Medicaid waiver and state resources, OMRDD began to expand family support services and provide flexible funding for individualized supports.

Change in a state as large and complex as New York is bound to be slow. OMRDD has promoted individualized services (the "Individualized Services Environment" or "ISE") as a philosophy, but state regional offices ("DSOs") and voluntary agencies do not share a common understanding of this new direction. Many of the services developed by state and voluntary agencies through new OMRDD individualized services initiatives parallel traditional models, albeit somewhat smaller than existing facilities. In many cases, state and voluntary agencies have not established safeguards for individualized services to replace traditional licensing and certification procedures.

Yet on a small scale and in increasing numbers, agencies in New York State are exploring innovative approaches to supporting families and assisting adults with developmental disabilities to live in their own homes. Many of these efforts have been undertaken by relatively small private agencies. For some agencies, the development of individualized services for some people has resulted in a critical examination of all of their services. For other agencies, individualized services take their place within a continuum of otherwise traditional services.

This bulletin describes some of the most innovative examples of individualized services in New York State identified during a statewide search by the Center on Human Policy. None of the agencies or services described in this bulletin is perfect. However, each of these services described here can provide a positive example for agencies interested in pursuing more responsive and individualized ways of supporting people with developmental disabilities in the community.

Reference

Mangan, T., Blake, E. M., Prouty, R. W., & Lakin, K. C. (1994). Residential services for persons with mental retardation and related conditions: Status and trends through 1993. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Research and Training Center on Residential Services and Community Living, Institute on Community Integration (UAP).

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INDIVIDUALIZED SERVICES IN NEW YORK STATE:AN INTRODUCTION

INDIVIDUALIZED SERVICES IN NEW YORK STATE:
AN INTRODUCTION