Helping people with disabilities and their families to achieve what is important to them.
Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services
August /September 
2013
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New Phone Number for Eligibility

 The agency's Introduction and Eligibility (formerly Intake) Department has a new phone number for first-time callers.  
Please call
(513) 559-6990. 
Maurice Thomas, Instructor Assistant at Fairfax School
Black Family Reunion

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table at the Black Family Reunion in mid-August.  Also, thanks to all the employees who helped out by working at the table!
 
Provider Tour Calendar
   Looking for a provider? Want to check out a new one? Check out our agency calendar, which now features group provider tours. This makes it easy for families and individuals to easily find the provider they are looking for. 
    If you are a provider interested in scheduling a tour, click here.  Contact Jana Hughes with questions. 
    Some upcoming tours:
 
 

 


     Happy Anniversary to General Assembly (GA), the agency's non-profit business arm! On September 5, it celebrated 40 years.
     GA works with the agencys' adult centers and businesses to help fill production needs such as packaging, light product assembly, store displays, collating, and more.
   If you know of a business that could use the services of GA, or just to more, visit  

  

New Agency Logo

     
 
  We are happy to announce that we have a new logo! 
   It was past time to update the logo to reflect our name change in 2009, and our focus on people. The previous logo had been in existence for more years than we can remember! 
  We will be rolling out the logo slowly over the next few months into 2014, so you may see both logos on agency items for a while.
Provider Fair coming soon

Families, want to meet potential new providers? Join us for a Provider Fair!
 
The fair takes place on October 5, 2013, from noon to 4 p.m. at United Cerebral Palsy, 2300 Drex Ave, Norwood, 45212. Click here for more details.
First day of school 2013

      Margaret B. Rost and Bobbie B. Fairfax Schools started for the year on August 21. Welcome back!

Matt Briner named Director of Program Services
    Matt Briner, Assistant Director of Program Services, has been promoted to Director of Program Services.
    Matt has a Bachelor of Arts from Denison University and a Master of Arts from Xavier in Clinical Psychology. 
    He was previously the Behavior Support Coordinator and a Behavior Support Specialist for the agency, Administrator at We-Care Homes, Inc, and Administrator at Fairfield Center, Inc. He has been in the field over 25 years. Congratulations, Matt!
You're invited to join the agency for Strategy Cafes

       Got ideas that respond to the hopes and concerns of people who receive our services, their families, and staff? Join the agency to contribute to the next five year strategic plan at our Strategy Cafes. These sessions are an informal and interactive opportunity to offer your input. 

     Thanks to the agency's Advocacy Leadership Network (ALN) for hosting these cafes in conjunction with other disabilities organizations who are offering their facilities to host.

        You are welcome to attend just one, or as many as you'd like. For more info and to see the list of times and locations of all sessions, please click here. 

Early Intervention Playdate
  
The Northeast Early Intervention team held a playdate in early August at 1000 Hand Park at CRC Pleasant Ridge. Everyone had a great time!
MUIP News

      The new  Major Unusual Incidents (MUI) rule (OAC 5123:2-17-02) became effective on September 3, 2013, replacing the previous 2007 version.  

      This law was developed to ensure safety and welfare for individuals with disabilities by preventing adverse incidents from occurring or recurring.  Incidents include  abuse, neglect, theft, significant medical incidents, law enforcement incidents, and others.  The rule addresses how people  working in the DD field should report these incidents, under what conditions, safety steps to take, investigation protocols, prevention plans to be developed, trend and pattern reviews, oversight, and much more.  

      The new version offers enhanced definitions and action steps based on results from the field and stakeholder feedback that should better prioritize efforts and response for individuals with disabilities and their support persons.             

      The Ohio Department of DD has created a Health and Welfare Toolkit  that includes the new rule language, an individual/family guide, and a large array of tools that will support individuals, advocates, reporters, providers, investigators, and others as we all seek to optimize safety efforts for individuals with disabilities.   To view the Toolkit, go to: 

http://dodd.ohio.gov/healthandsafety/Pages/For-Individuals-+-Families.aspx

From the Superintendent

     Strategic planning process underway

  

      As Fall approaches, we at Hamilton County DD Services are looking toward the near and far future, working on a five-year strategic plan and beginning preparations for the 2014 levy campaign. 

      Our management team has begun lengthy work on our agency's five-year strategic plan.  We will be sharing that work soon through strategy cafes with those whom we serve and their families, a broader cross-section of staff, and provider and other community partners.  A schedule of those strategy cafes is on our web site, check out the article about them in this newsletter, hope you will attend a session to give us your feedback. 

     We'll be using this work and what you tell us in the strategy cafes to create a document that we'll publish after the first of the year and use to guide us over the next five years.  We'll also be using this work to develop our annual action plan for 2014 by this December. 

     We're excited about mapping out our near and far future with your help!

      In addition to our never-changing focus on the needs of people with disabilities in Hamilton County, several state and national emerging issues that will impact our system in ways we are still learning about are driving our discussions and plans.  We call these issues "mega drivers."  

      One mega driver is a focus statewide on employment of people with disabilities through Governor Kasich's Employment First Initiative.  In anticipation of this emerging initiative, we were pleased last fall to host a panel discussion with Mike LaRosa and LaRosa's employee Mark and Bob Kaiser of Kaiser Pickles and employee Tony. 

     A national trend that we must monitor and plan for is the growing movement away from "sheltered workshops" for people with disabilities.  This movement is fueled by a law suit against the state of Oregon by the U.S. Department of Justice.  It is starting to change the employment landscape for people with disabilities that we along with every other county board in Ohio and organizations in other states must pay attention to long-term.  Read more at  http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2013/04/15/facing-lawsuit-workshops/17711. 

    Last but certainly not least, we are working with several key stakeholders to plan for the Hamilton County DD Services 2014 property tax levy campaign that will begin after the first of the year.   You will be receiving important levy information regularly via a separate levy email account since we are limited by campaign laws in sharing much in this agency newsletter about the campaign.

      As a reminder, our agency receives 71% of its total funding from a Hamilton County property tax levy that is up for vote in 2014.  Every five years we must go before voters and ask them to approve the levy so we can continue services to more than 9,000 adults and children with disabilities.  We've appreciated overwhelming community support of this levy since it began in 1974.

 

Alice Pavey, Superintendent