[il-talk] DRS of Illinois Update

[Robert Gardner]

I received the following as a member of the State Rehab Council.  

Bob

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DIVISION OF REHABILITATION SERVICES

Community Partner Update

July 2, 2009

 

DRS BUDGET - DRS continues to work with the Governor's Office of Management and Budget to develop a budget for FY'10.  The range of possibilities varies widely, some more promising than others for the Division and the Agency.  The legislature was back in session last week, contemplating both a tax increase and a more complete budget for the state.  They left town June 30 without making much progress on either, I am sad to report.  On July 1, Governor Quinn vetoed the "50% Budget" (SB 1197), which had passed the legislature.  Letters have gone out from DRS to Extended Services Providers, Centers for Independent Living, and Lekoteks detailing the required cuts and their impact on General Revenue Funding.  Additional cuts may be necessary, depending on what the legislature does; at this time they are scheduled to return to the State House on July 14.

 

STIMULUS FUNDING - DRS has received dollars from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.  Most notable is the $10 million that has already been received for Vocational Rehabilitation.  DRS has worked with relevant stakeholders in order to develop a Decision Memo for how the first of these VR funds will be disseminated.  DRS remains confident that the results of all these efforts will be an additional 1,700 or so individuals obtaining employment through Vocational Rehabilitation.  The information from the DM will be posted on the web, once it has been officially approved by the Governor's Office.  Contracts, contract modifications, and Requests for Proposals will be forthcoming shortly thereafter.  Older Blind ARRA funds and dollars for Independent Living had previously been finalized and approved by the Governor's Office.

 

HOME SERVICES PROGRAM - The Home Services Program has been working with Healthcare and Family Services in order to prepare and submit the application for the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Waiver renewal.  The waiver expires October 1, and we are not planning any significant changes to the array of services offered to approximately 23,000 citizens in Illinois who live in the community. However, like many other human service programs, we anxiously await the final budget for FY10.  

 

The Home Services Program is also currently working on a new strategy to provide enhanced case management oversight in the development of service plans to consumers across Illinois.  The initiative will involve statewide review of the plans of care specifically, allocation of time spent performing targeted activities of daily living.  The program's future is contingent upon providing quality and essential services, but also consistent service delivery across the state. HSP will soon be holding a stakeholder's meeting to describe the process and procedures for implementation October, 2009.

 

MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON - The 23 Centers for Independent Living have been very busy since the implementation of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Program.  As of 6/16/09, ten individuals have been transitioned as part of this initiative with 47 additional individuals enrolled in the program.  Overall to date, the CILS have reintegrated 192 individuals living in Nursing Facilities to the Community.  Project Administrators from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMMS) met with the Illinois MFP team to discuss the implementation of the project, meet the Illinois team members and share information on the current MFP activities.  The three day visit included meeting with staff and consumers at Access Living and Heartland Alliance to learn more about the reintegration process and support services provided to enhance and strengthen the transition process. 

 

STRATEGIC PLANNING - DRS completed a survey of VR counselors regarding their working relationships with community rehabilitation program agencies.  CRPs are non-profit community agencies that receive VR funding to provide job placement and supported employment services to VR customers.   The overall results were positive, with 87 percent of counselors saying they were satisfied with the services provided by CRPs, and with 41 percent rating the quality of CRP services as excellent or very good.   About half of the counselors responding (49%) said they had never had a problem making a referral to a CRP, and 36 percent said that their relationships with CRPs had improved in the last two years.   A solid majority (63%) of counselors felt that DRS is not in competition with CRPs, and 77 percent reported a positive level of communication between CRPs and DRS staff.     The survey was conducted in conjunction with the Facility Advisory Committee in response to a survey of CRP staff last year. 

 

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION - DRS will fall short of 5,000 competitive closures for the first time in many years. Unfortunately, the dismal economy has had a significant impact on persons with disabilities obtaining jobs. With the many factory closings, retail chains closing down and/or drastically downsizing, there is a glut of work ready applicants available to employers, making it more difficult to place pwd's. Despite the economy, staff continue pressing hard to find jobs that are available for our customers. With the recession hopefully coming to a halt at the end of '09, next year will be much better for our VR Customers and our country as a whole. 

 

DECATUR & MATTOON OFFICES - These offices have a new Rehabilitation Services Supervisor. Rod Pierce has been promoted the new supervisor for staff of the Bureau of Field Services for those offices. Mr. Pierce comes into the position with a wealth of knowledge from over 20 years experience as a Rehabilitation Counselor in Bloomington, and most recently, the DRS Counselor at Illinois State University. Mr. Pierce will spend time between the two offices. 

 

EDUCATION SERVICES - Graduation of more than fifty students was celebrated at the Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD), the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired (ISVI) and the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education - Roosevelt (ICRE-R) this past month. Commencement speakers included Representative Jim Watson; President Dr. Vinnie Hall, University of Illinois Professor; and Dr. Robert Davila, and President of Gallaudet University, respectively.  Both ISD and ISVI recently completed their annual parent infant institutes the first week of June.  These programs bring parents, siblings and their babies/toddlers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Blind or Visually Impaired for a week of intense sessions including evaluations and assessments, orientation and mobility, assistive technology, cochlear implants, and FM listening systems/hearing aides, language development, speech development, communication options, and deaf culture. ISVI served 28 babies, 10 siblings and 54 parents/guardians.  ISD served 27 babies, 13 siblings and 46 parents/guardians.  

 

SERVICES FOR THE DEAF & HARD OF HEARING - A group of ten high school students who are deaf and hard of hearing visited the offices of the Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing staff at JRTC on June 17th. During the tour, staff discussed the need for independence that work provides.  Many of the students in this group will probably enter the work force upon graduation. The continuation of vocational rehabilitation services was explained along with an overview of VR services that are available. 

 

The students are currently served by a Transition Specialist with the High School.  As part of the comprehensive transition program, the students went to the Westchester VR office and met with the Rehabilitation Counselor for the Deaf.  The counselor explained the transition from high school services to VR services.  The counselor said she is ready and waiting to work with them to assist in obtaining competitive employment. 

 

CONTRACT UNIT - The 2010 Community Service Contracts were electronically available to community service providers again this year.  Providers simply logged into a website and downloaded their contracts, and the signature page was faxed or scanned and forwarded to the Office of Contract Administration.  The DRS Contract Unit monitored the return of these signatures on a daily basis.  Project Officers worked with providers to expedite the returned signed pages, as no provider could be provided services or receive payment if there was no signed contract in place on July 1.  

 

BUREAU OF BLIND SERVICES - The Discovery Low Vision Conference will be held in Chicago at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza, 350 North Orleans, Chicago, from August 20-22, 2009.  This conference is held every two years and participants include vision professionals, educators, customers, and others from the community.  Attendance over the years has ranged from 500 to 1370. Conference information is available at www.spectrios.org (formerly Deicke Center for Visual Rehabilitation), under the link Discovery Low Vision Conference.

 

BBS Region 4, in conjunction with Springfield Noon Lions Club and The Mary Bryant Home for the Blind in Springfield, held a Low Vision Fair on Thursday June 11, 2009. More than 390 individuals were in attendance.  Speakers for the event included: Dr. David Dodwell from Illinois Retina Center, Dr. Shawn Hill from Springfield Vision Care Associates, Latisha Houston and the Illinois Braille Committee, and Joyce Brewers and Kay Chambers from Bureau of Blind Services. Presentation topics included Eye research, Low vision care, 200th birthday of Louis Braille and demonstrations of various low vision devices.  There were twenty-three vendors covering every area of need for those seniors who are visually impaired.  Some of the exhibits included Closed Circuit Televisions, low vision computer accessible programs, Braille services, consumer groups, public health, and firemen services and programs.  The event was a great success.

 

 

 

DRS TRAINING UNIT - The Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Checkpoint Modules have been in use in local offices for well over a year now.  These Modules are an effort to offer a consistent training process for Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Trainees.  The Modules consist of six areas which represent all facets of the casework process: Intake and Application, Eligibility and Order of Selection, Assessment Summary, Individual Plan for Employment, Closure, and Appeals.  Coupled with New Employee Orientation as well as the mentoring, shadowing, and hands-on opportunities the new VR counselor trainee will experience in the local offices, the Checkpoint process offers a consistent, well-rounded opportunity for VR counselor trainees to become familiar with DRS mission and policy and procedures as well as be exposed to and actively participate in the case work process.  In addition, the VR counselor trainee is offered a variety of experiences meant to develop and hone their skills with the expectation that he or she will be prepared to knowledgeably and competently represent Division of Rehabilitation Services in providing services for persons with disabilities. These same Modules are utilized for veteran employees as a refresher

 

In an effort to maintain staff who are current on issues and policy as it pertains to the jobs they do for DHS/DRS, the Staff Development Section constantly seeks to offer and/or provide pertinent training opportunities and information to enhance employee skill levels.  Current training focus is on policy and procedure.  Those trainings are: Evaluation, Assessment, Plan (EAP) which focuses on the evaluation process and the writing of the Assessment Summary and IPE; One-the-Job Evaluation (OJE)/ On-the-Job Training (OJT) which focuses on employer incentives that DRS can offer as well as promoting the importance of DRS as a resource to employers; Writing Case Notes and Interviewing the DRS customers; and other related topics

 

EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE SPECIALISTS - ERSs continue to travel extensively in an effort to assist offices with employment issues and getting persons with disabilities jobs.  Various activities occur periodically across the state, including job fairs, job support groups, interview fairs, individually working with counselors and local offices regarding job placement and employment issues as, well as offering various training opportunities dealing with employment issues.

 

THE DRS CALENDAR - The 2010 calendar (& Annual Report) is in the process of being drafted.  A group of individuals from all levels of DRS are beginning to work on the annual report which will not only focus on important statistics and accomplishments, but will also showcase customer's individual stories in working with DRS counselors to obtain employment and independence.  The interviews and customer contacts completed thus far indicate that this year's annual report will once again showcase the customer service standards that DRS prides itself on.