The Arc of Washington County
Influencer Analysis
Identity/Title
Provider agencies are organizations serving the life support needs of persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. We provide independent support coordination services to persons they serve. We also provide support coordination services to staff of provider organizations.
Description
The Arc of Washington County serves 23 provider agencies in 17 Tennessee counties. The provider agencies with the most persons receiving independent support coordination from our organization are Com Care, Greene County Skills, Home Health, Dawn of Hope, Washington County Residential Services, Sertoma, and Claiborn County Arc. These organizations account for 258 of the 306 persons receiving independent support coordination services from The Arc of Washington County.
Issues/Goals
With the advent of the settlement agreements in Tennessee, provider organizations have been asked to make a paradigm shift away from agency based services to person centered supports. Many organizations have built solid infrastructures that are well supported by local communities to serve persons with mental retardation in group homes, day activity centers, and sheltered workshops. Missions and values generally support the continuation of continuum of care, train-and-place, risk reduced environments, and graduated services that create barriers for persons with mental retardation from experiencing the full benefits and responsibilities of adult life. Paying for the upkeep of one infrastructure while trying to build another is more than an ideological barrier for many organizations. Financially, some organizations feel they lack the dollar resources to make a conversion to person centered supports. The detailed requirements of the settlement agreements, anger over control issues, lack of research and development dollars; absence of a consensual plan at the provider level to meet the outcomes of the Community Plan are some of the issues affecting the delivery of supports to persons with mental retardation. Many provider organizations continue to maintain commitment to agency driven services, thereby making conversion to person-centered-supports difficult.
Provider organizations hold the key to the doorway into community life. Without their support and partnership, transition from service-centered to person-centered-supports will occur slowly and unevenly across the State of Tennessee. The Community Plan is not being implemented in four important areas: choice, work, friends, and community relationships. Provider organizations, independent support organizations, State of Tennessee Division of Mental Retardation Services, parents, and local communities have conflicting missions, values, blind spots, and needs. A consensual plan or commitment for the conversion from service-based to person-based supports for ordinary life in the community does not appear to be accepted by all partners within and across service domains
Potential Impact on our Organization
Service providers are one of the important foundations upon which the successes of the Community Plan depend. The others are the court, DMRS, families, Independent Support Coordinators, and people in the many communities that make up Eastern Tennessee. This organization must find ways to support the needs of provider organizations in their search to shift paradigms from providing services to supporting the identity, autonomy, affiliation, rights, and wellness needs of persons with mental retardation and
developmental disabilities. If we do not find ways to support the needs of provider organizations, many persons with mental retardation will escape one segregated environment for life in another. If we can not develop partnerships and acquire allies for persons with mental retardation from provider organizations and other partners, we will likely be relegated to a peripheral role or no role when the court disengages from the settlement agreement.
Best Communication Channels
The best communication channel is the Individual Support Meetings for persons served by the provider organization, followed by contact and regular meetings with the Executive Directors of the provider organizations and The Arc of Washington County. An annual survey to determine the extent to which provider organization staff feel the ISC is delivering needed supports to people with mental retardation and needed supports to provider staff would be helpful in addressing support and partnership issues. It would be helpful if provider organizations, independent support organizations, and DMRS met to find consensus on the many issues that separate us. It would be helpful for major stakeholders to meet and discover common ground. With this perspective, perhaps stakeholders can learn to work together in ways that will promote the inclusion of persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities into valued roles of connection in the mainstream of community life.
What Type of Information Do They Need/Want?
Provider agencies want cost plans that will support their mission, values, expenses, and overhead. They want assistance in seeing how person centered planning and implementation fit into their mission. They want a safety net that will allow them to explore how the community plan meets their needs for identity and reputation. Provider agencies want to learn more about what community inclusion means for them, people important to them, the community, and persons with mental retardation. They want assurances that they will not be pushed or bullied into compliance. They want to know that financial resources will be available over the long run for the many changes that would be required for a conversion from service based to person based supports. Staff within provider agencies want to develop trusting partnerships with others in their efforts to be part of a circle of support team for the people they serve. For many years, provider agencies have provided a much-needed alternative to institutional care. Parents, persons with mental retardation, and community organizations and citizens have been and continue to be grateful for the shelter, nurture, support, and care lovingly given by provider agencies. They deserve nothing less than our complete respect for their dedication and efforts to help people, parents, and their community.
What Outcomes do we expect from this Influencer?
A commitment to a partnership that has as its major focus helping persons with mental retardation attain valued lives of connection with their family, friends, neighbors, co-workers in community based jobs, participants in retirement and other community places used by all citizens.
Release Date: 12/11/98
