LARGE
NEW ENROLLMENT and a NEW ENROLLMENT PROCESS!!
Almost a 1,000 children and adults will become new
participants
in services funded by
Illinois Division
of Developmental Disabilities Waivers.
·
800 additional adults and children will be funded in
these programs by Hospital Tax Revenues.
Sometimes you’ve heard this referred to as “Lockbox”
funding as it was set aside in negotiations to fund DD
services.
·
An additional 183 children will be funded by
the Federal match
provided by the transition of 72D participants into the
Children’s Home-Based Support Services program last
year.
They will have access to services in one of the
following programs:
·
Community Integrated Living Arrangement Services (most
often provided in group homes),
·
The
Adult Home-Based Support Services Programs,
·
Children’s Home-Based Support Services Programs,
·
Or
Developmental Training Services.
PUNS is the basis for the new Enrollment Process…
Adults and children will now be chosen for new
enrollment from the PUNS (Prioritization of Urgency of
Need for Services) database.
·
Names
will be selected based on the information provided in
the PUNS database and shared with the appropriate
Independent Service Coordination Agencies.
·
The
Independent Service Coordination Agencies will do the
appropriate Pre-Admission Screening (PAS).
·
Assuming the individual is found eligible, the
Independent Service Coordination Agency will work with
the family to submit the necessary service authorization
requests.
Selections from the PUNS database will be based on the
following criteria:
·
Urgency of need,
·
Length
of time on the database,
·
Statewide geographic distribution,
·
Current living arrangements,
·
Caregiver situations,
·
Randomness, etc.
The
selection criterion was originally reviewed by the
Developmental Disabilities Statewide Advisory Council.
It will continually be re-evaluated as PUNS data is
analyzed.
A number of capacities will be held open each month for
immediately urgent situations.
·
Abuse,
·
Neglect,
·
Homelessness.
An
anticipated ten capacities will be reserved each month
and continually re-evaluated
The Division will continue to process applications for
individuals who have special funding allocations,
such as
·
Individuals moving from State-Operated Developmental
Centers (SODCs)
·
Individuals transitioning from the Department of
Children and Family Services (DCFS).
What about folks already in the Application Process?
What about application packets that have already been
submitted?
·
Packets that have already been “approved” by DHS staff
but are waiting for available funding will be funded as
quickly as possible.
·
A
mixture of requests from pending packets and from the
PUNS database in general will be funded by the Hospital
Tax revenues (lockbox funding).
·
Many
of the current packets will be accommodated through a
portion of the Hospital Tax Revenues; the remaining
packets will be funded as vacancies occur.
What about application packets that are in the process
of being assembled but have not been submitted yet?
·
The
Division will continue to accept packets from PAS
providers for individuals who meet the current priority
population criteria through January 31, 2008.
·
For
those who are determined by network staff to have met
the eligibility and priority criteria, authorizations
will be released as vacant capacities become available.
·
More
detailed information on the new process will be
distributed to PAS agencies and others in early 2008.
Time
Frames:
These are the time frames that DHS has put together for
the transition to and implementation of the new process:
After January 31, 2008:
Request packets from Pre-Admission Screening providers
will no longer be accepted unless the applicant already
was offered the opportunity to apply.
(Packets for those that are abused, neglected, or
homeless, as well as packets for individuals
transitioning from SODCs and DCFS, are the exception to
this.)
By January 31, 2008: Authorizations for a portion of the
current packets using Hospital Tax Revenues and current
vacant capacities will be released.
(This work began in December.)
By February 28, 2008: The new process for selecting
individuals from the PUNS database will begin.
Individuals and their PAS providers will be made aware
of the opportunity to apply for services. Applications
will be processed as submitted.
As
of March 1, 2008:
The Division of DD
will routinely address requests through the new PUNS
process using vacant capacities and any new
funds made available through appropriations.
By April 30, 2008:
The Division of DD
will routinely re-evaluate the number of capacities
available each month due to vacancies in
light of the significant expansion. By June 30, 2008,
process all remaining approved packets that are
currently with network staff or that will be submitted
to them by the end of January 2008. (The ability to meet
this time frame will depend on the total number
submitted by the end of January.)
Want
more detail?
Read the memos yourself on the Family Support Network
website
at the following addresses:
http://www.familysupportnetwork.org/800%20New%20Enrollment%20Announcement.pdf
http://www.familysupportnetwork.org/PUNS%20FLOWCHART.pdf
http://www.thearcofil.org
Want to learn more about using the Children’s and the
Adult’s Home-Based Support Services Programs?
The Family Support Network and the Arc of Illinois are
hosting FOUR more “Dreaming New Dreams” Seminars in
April.
We hosted seven seminars last October and November.
They were a wonderful success.
This
is a quote from Ellen Bronfeld, a participant last fall,
“Make it a priority
to go to it! The seminar was amazing and
everything was explained in detail, and in a language
that we all could understand! They also supply you with
a copy of the power point presentation at the beginning
of the day, so as they go along, you can follow and make
lots of notes!”
Following are the towns and sites.
The
brochures are at the printers and will be on our website
in the next day or so. Look for another e-mail with more
information.
Evanston:
Wednesday, April 2nd
Naperville:
Thursday, April 3rd
Champaign:
Wednesday, April 9th
Springfield:
Thursday, April 10th
