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The At Home Your Way team!
(and still growing!)
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You can find events in the event section of this newsletter or on our
calendar.
Be sure to add them to your feeds for news and content geared towards adults of Virginia with disabilities.
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Caregiver Resources
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Caregiving at Home: A Guide to Community Resources
The diagnosis of a dementing illness or disabling health condition marks a new stage in your life and your family's life. Important decisions about care arise, along with uncertainty and anxiety. Some choices might need to be made right away. Others lie ahead.
If you're caring for someone at home, you may be helping your loved one with a range of activities such as bathing, dressing, transportation, and food preparation. In addition, you may have to take care of legal and financial matters such as making medical decisions and handling bills and budgets. Fortunately, a variety of community care options are available to assist you and your loved one.
This fact sheet presents an overview of the different services and programs available to caregivers and individuals with cognitive disorders or other chronic health conditions. Organizations listed throughout the fact sheet can help you locate specific assistance. Additional information is provided in the Resources section at the end of the fact sheet.
See the full resource here
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Lessons Learned Through Caregiving
By Joe Dinardo, New York
My wife Marcia was a loving mother, friend, sister, aunt, and daughter. She extended genuine warmth and affection to each and every person she knew, always accepting without judgment. She was fiercely loyal to her family and friends, like a mother bear with her cubs.
With Marcia, the house was filled with laughter and meals were made with love. She took care of all of us, and we took care of each other, raising our daughter Julianna together and making each other happy. What we shared in 20 years together was not perfect by any means, but for me it was perfectly imperfect and it worked.
When Marcia was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in February 2013, both of our worlds changed. She had complained of stomach pain and was initially diagnosed with gallstones. After a series of visits with specialists, we found out that it was cancer instead.
.........
Finish the story here
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ALL Regions have been rolled over into the CCC Plus Program,
as of January 1, 2018!
Continuity of Care Period
Prior to April 1, 2018, the continuity of care period to maintain the Member's current providers and service levels is up to 90 days. The health plan will honor the service authorizations issued by DMAS or the prior DMAS Contractor for the length of the existing service authorization or 90 days (whichever is sooner). The health plan will extend this time frame as necessary to ensure continuity of care pending the
provider's contracting with the health plan or the Member's safe and effective transition to a contracted provider. On April 1, 2018, the continuity of care period to maintain the Member's current providers is for 30 days, and the health plan will honor the service authorizations issued by DMAS or the DMAS Contractor for the length of the existing service authorization or 30 days (whichever is sooner). The health plan will extend this time frame as necessary to ensure continuity of care, pending the provider's contracting with the health plan or the Member's safe and effective transition to a contracted provider.
Member Materials
You can find information and resources here to help you get the health care you need.
Consumer Direction
For assistance regarding a personal care attendant and payment, please first check with your Service Facilitator or Care Coordinator. Secondly, please contact the Public Private Partnership (PPL) helpline at 1-866-259-3009 or email: cdsf@dmas.virginia.gov.
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CCC Plus Waiver covers Environmental Modifications too...
EM's are internal and external physical adaptations to the primary home or primary vehicle
, which are necessary to ensure the health, welfare and safety of the individual. These modifications enable the individual to function with greater independence and prevent institutionalization.
- Modification to the layout (remove a door to make the opening wider)
- Provide adaptive equipment (install a tub bench)
- Architectural Modification (install a ramp, bathroom modification)
- Vehicle Modification (installing controls, modifying for wheelchair)
See the Ability Unlimited website for Eligibility Criteria: Ability Unlimited
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Advocacy
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Office of the State long-Term Care Ombudsman
Ombudsmen advocate for older persons receiving long term care services, whether the care is provided in a nursing home or assisted living facility, or through community-based services to assist persons still living at home. We provide older Virginians, their families and the public with information, advocacy, and assistance to help resolve care problems.
We work to resolve problems of individual residents and groups of residents to bring about changes at the local, state and national levels to improve care and quality of life. The cornerstone of this work is Residents' Rights. While many people receive good long term care services, others encounter problems and neglect.
Ombudsmen, both paid staff and volunteers, provide help and a voice for those that are not heard or unable to speak for themselves.
Ombudsman/Advocates also assist individuals who have both Medicare-Medicaid and are enrolled in the Commonwealth Coordinated Care Plans (CCC). Coordinated Care Advocates help to resolve problems with plan coverage, assessing plan benefits, health care, behavioral health care and long-term care services and supports.
What is an Ombudsman?:
A Long-Term Care Ombudsman works objectively on behalf of older people receiving long term care services in a nursing home, an assisted living facility or in the community. The Long-Term Care Ombudsman is mandated to be resident-centered and thus while being objective, must always consider what is in the best interests of the person receiving the long term care services.
The Ombudsman Program has a unique role. While it works cooperatively with regulatory agencies such as the Virginia Department of Health - Office of Licensure & Certification and the Virginia Department of Social Services - Division of Licensing , as well as other programs such as Adult Protective Services, its efforts are focused on complaint resolution and empowering persons to resolve complaints themselves when appropriate.
What an Ombudsman Does
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An Ombudsman advocates for older persons receiving long term care by:
- Receiving, investigating, and working to resolve complaints involving quality of care issues, made by or on the behalf of residents of long term care facilities, and for those receiving community based long term care service;
- Assisting long-term care recipients in exercising their rights;
- Mediating concerns between residents and/or their families and the care provider;
- Providing consumer/public education, including information and referral assistance regarding Virginia's network of long term care services;
- Providing technical support for the development of resident and family councils; and
- Monitoring and addressing regulation and policy affecting older people receiving long term care services.
You can view the website here:
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Community Living
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Vanguard Landing
Virginia Beach, VA
Vanguard Landing will provide a full, well-rounded integrated community life experience on and off the campus. A sustainable, person-centered haven, Vanguard Landing will offer residents the opportunity and environment to reach their maximum potential and support them to achieve their personal goals in all areas of their lives. These areas will include: life skills, continuing education, job skill development, meaningful employment, fitness, social skills development, leisure time utilization, expressive and performing arts, friendship building and continued family and community involvement.
Residents and day participants will be offered choices in developing their individual plans that will promote maximum fulfillment while addressing health and safety concerns. The residents and day employees will have full-time staff to provide the level of support needed. It will be a thriving community filled with residential, cultural centers, businesses, shops, an equestrian center, a restaurant, walking trails, a community center named "The Gathering Point", The VanGarden, greenhouses and an art center among other offerings.
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Virginia Easy Access
There are many types of housing available where you can live independently. You can choose to live in a private home or apartment with or without services. You can also choose to live in a group home, assisted living, or adult foster care where services are provided to you and other people living with you. Housing with services is usually licensed or regulated by an outside agency. You may want to ask about this when thinking about your choices. Click Here
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PPL - Waiver Fiscal Agent/"Payroll"
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NEW online Enrollment for Caregivers
Click here to create an account
Become an E-Timesheet User in Virginia!
Still submitting timesheets by fax or mail?
Sign up for the faster, more secure and accurate e-TIMESHEET
For a User Manual send email to: User Manual
Check out At Home Your Way's:
Check out PPL's:
Payroll Schedules
Hiring a New Attendant?
Consumer/EOR/Attendant
- E-Timesheet Multiple Service Time sheets -The PPL Portal system enhancement was launched in April. With this the E-Timesheet User Attendant creates one time sheet for all services. The Attendant selects the service on each day within the time sheet. PLEASE NOTE: THIS ENHANCMENT IS FOR E-TIMESHEET USERS ONLY. Paper time sheet users do not have any change with submitting time sheets. They must create and submit a paper time sheet for EACH service.
- Faxing of documents to PPL - Multiple Consumers - When faxing documents to PPL please try not to send multiple consumers information within one fax. This helps with the ease of processing the document coming in and better able to account for all documents received.
Instructions for a Notice of "Discontinued Employment"
Why is this form important?
- PPL needs to know when an attendant is no longer working for the following reasons:
- To prevent incorrect payments;
- For correct information on who is working for you or who has worked for you
- For unemployment hearings.
- PPL can communicate to the Virginia Employment Commission the last date of employment and reason.
- To prevent fraudulent reporting of time by a terminated aide.
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Spotlight On...
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Tender Touch Services provides one-on-one ABA therapy to individuals diagnosed on the autism spectrum ranging in ages from 2-21. We provide our services in the home as well as local community settings. The families we support are given as needed training sessions, communication with the appropriate service providers to include school resources and medical personnel and advocacy groups. Our clients work for 10-25 hours per week with a Behavior Specialist. All plans are developed by a licensed Clinical Supervisor whom is a BCBA or BCaBA and follow the format of the principals of ABA . We are located in Fairfax Virginia and serve the Northern and central Virginia counties.
GROUP HOME SERVICE- We provide group home services for adults with Autism. Services are dedicated to promoting personal independence while protecting individuals from harm and respecting the dignity and lifestyle choices of our residents.
We offer unique, home environments with up to five persons per home, and we encourage active involvement in the neighborhood and surrounding community.
Our goal is to assist individuals in achieving personal accomplishments and be valued members of the community.
Services Provided:
- Individual ABA Sessions
- Detailed Assessments
- Family Support and Training
- Support Home Services
- Collaborative Treatment Plans
- Educational Advocacy
- Intensive Therapy
- Skill Building Programs
Tender touch Autism Services
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Events
Chronic Disease Self-Management Program
RSVP: tgratz@cildrc.org
Every Thursday in May -
Live Well is a FREE self-management workshop that meets once a week for six weeks for approximately 2-2 ½ hours.
Workshops are led by two specially trained leaders who are committed to helping you and your family learn strategies to manage your health and symptoms better. To register, contact Tennie Gratz, 540-373-2559
Project Sidewalk: Mapping Accessibility through Google Street View - Webinar
Registration deadline: May 14
Google Maps, Waze and Yelp have transformed the way people travel and access information about the physical world. While these systems contain terabytes of data about roads and points of interest (POIs), their information about physical accessibility is commensurately poor. New websites such as AXSmap, WheelMap, and AccessTogether aim to address this problem by collecting location-based accessibility information provided by volunteers (i.e., crowdsourcing). While these efforts are important and commendable, their value propositions are intrinsically tied to the amount and quality of provided data -- and prior work has found that they suffer from serious data sparseness issues. In contrast, a team from the University of Maryland and the University of Washington is exploring a complementary approach called Project Sidewalk where volunteer users *virtually* walk through cities in Google Street View to label and assess sidewalk accessibility--a bit like a first-person video game.
Fairfax County NCS Calendars
A link to every event in Fairfax County's Community and Senior Centers!
Daily activities scheduled from 9 am - 1 pm - even a coloring book & Ice cream social day! With various different day trips available. 434-296-3184
Loudoun County Senior Centers
Loudoun County offers 4 Centers with a variety of activities and programs available to those 55 and older:
Senior Center of Leesburg
Hampton VA Parks, Recreation & Leisure
Therapeutic Recreation Program for adults with special needs. This program offers ongoing opportunities where individuals can participate in events with others while playing cards and board games, dancing, doing crafts, and much more! 757-728-1710
Other events can be accessed here Calendar.
Be prepared for the future, and utilize this guide to help you prepare for long term care services.
Look for our Newsletter again, in July!
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Va.mysupport.com
MySupport is an online platform designed to help you find people with disabilities, seniors and families looking to hire home care workers. We're now recruiting workers in the State of Virginia interested in being employed providing in-home support services to Virginians with long term care needs. Just fill out a profile, answer some match questions, and wait to be contacted by clients looking for home care workers.
Participating in MySupport gives you many advantages as a home care worker. You can set your own hours, negotiate your own rate of pay and find clients who match your personality and values. If you're looking for a job that's rewarding, self-directed and gives you a chance to help others, MySupport is the tool for you.
MyChoice4Care™ directory is for those who choose to self-direct their home care and need to hire caregivers, and, for caregivers seeking jobs. Participants post information regarding the type of assistance they need, while caregivers post their work experience and search the job postings to find a match.
The directory is supported by PCG Public Partnerships LLC, a management services company for participant directed programs.
A Virginia Statewide Directory
is now available for people who would like to become a Consumer-Directed Assistant and for people who need a Consumer-Directed Assistant. People wanting to become assistants can list their skills, availability, location, and contact information. People with disabilities that need attendants can search for a person to work with them that matches their needs.
At Home Your Way Facebook Group
Click the "join group" button. Once you're in, ask questions about Waivers or post an ad for an attendant. Please be careful about the information you choose to share.
The Arc of Northern Virginia
has put together an
incredible document
to introduce individuals to consumer direction. Starting on page 8 of the document, there are very valuable insights into finding and managing qualified care providers. (Remember they are located in Northern VA, so the reimbursement rate is only relevant to NVA.)
Other strategies to find attendants:
- Relevant departments of local colleges.
- Your local department of social services likely has a list of people interested in working as attendants.
- Ask your school's paraprofessionals.
- Virginia Employment Commission
- Utilize sites such as:
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At Home Your Way is a Consumer Directed Medicaid Waiver Service Facilitation provider for the CCC Plus, CL & FIS Waivers.
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