CSH New Training Offerings for 2022 Including: Addressing Hoarding

State Partners Collaborate to Assist Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Access Substance Use Treatment

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New Housing Listings

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Attendees can also take a short Google Survey about your conference experience.

A shout out to Community Health Law Project as they embark on multiple partnerships which will expand access to supportive services for many in need of assistance. New partnerships include:

Become a SHA Member and get access to great meetings and many other great member benefits. Need more information? Email Joseph Christensen with your questions.

With the availability of HOME-ARP funds, there is the potential for making meaningful investments in enhancing and expanding supportive housing and services across the country and here in New Jersey. Join us with guest speakers from CSH for a discussion on how these available funds may be used in financing, capital, operating, and supportive services within supportive housing.

Click here to see the funding New Jersey received.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the expansion of a partnership established earlier this year to improve access to affordable, accessible housing and the critical services that make community living possible. The partners also announced the launch of a national Housing and Services Resource Center (HSRC) as the hub of this coordinated federal effort. Today’s announcement builds on President Biden’s Executive Order establishing a government-wide commitment to advancing equity, including for people with disabilities, as well as additional commitments announced in July on the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Within HHS, this partnership is led by the Administration for Community Living. It includes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. In every state and community, there are a number of entities and programs helping people access housing and supportive services. Too often, however, the housing and service systems are siloed. 

The Housing and Services Resource Center will implement a federally coordinated approach to providing resources, program guidance, training, and technical assistance to public housing authorities and housing providers; state Medicaid, disability, aging and behavioral health agencies; the aging and disability networks; homeless services organizations and networks; health care systems and providers; and tribal organizations. 

The main focus areas of learning in this partnership include:

The Department of Health and Human Services released a study last week outlining the use of telehealth among Medicare recipients in 2020. The study found an increasing willingness to seek out behavioral health services through telehealth. Notably, a third of visits to behavioral health specialists (including general psychiatrists, neuropsychiatrists, psychologists, clinical psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers) were conducted via telehealth. These providers saw the largest increase for telehealth utilization among all providers in 2020 by Medicare recipients.

To help protect access to care as informed by data, CMS recently announced that for the first time outside of the COVID-19 PHE, Medicare will pay for mental health visits furnished by Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers via interactive video-based telehealth, including audio-only telephone calls. Additionally, CMS is permanently eliminating geographic barriers and allowing patients in their homes to access telehealth services for diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of mental health disorders, including via audio-only communications technology. These provisions were included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.

Other Medicare services added to the telehealth services list temporarily during the PHE will remain in place through December 31, 2023, while CMS continues to evaluate whether these services should be permanently added to the Medicare telehealth services list. And to provide more transparency and visibility into telemedicine usage, CMS is also releasing a new snapshot showing the number of people with Medicare who utilized telemedicine services between March 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. The snapshot includes Medicare FFS claims data, Medicare Advantage (MA) encounter data, and Medicare enrollment information.

In a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers found rampant racial discrimination in American rental markets — specifically, that property managers are less likely to respond to prospective Black and Hispanic tenants when they inquire about open listings.

The Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN) has launched a completely redesigned website!

The site helps employers and HR professionals recruit, hire, retain and advance people with disabilities in the workplace. It offers easy access to resources, including workplace training and educational materials, to assist employers in building a disability-inclusive environment and meeting their workplace diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) goals. The Mental Health Toolkit and Inclusion@Work Framework, along with a suite of new online courses, easy-to-use checklists and in-depth policy guides, are all housed in one place to help employers create more inclusive workplaces.

In addition, visitors will find information on trending topics such as COVID-19 and the ADA, accessible telework and workplace neurodiversity. Please visit the website at AskEARN.org.

Previously, the Arc of New Jersey distributed three helpful fact sheets, with frequently asked questions (FAQs) that explain what happens when individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who receive Medicaid become eligible for Medicare too. When that happens these individuals are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid benefits, and there are some changes that occur. The fact sheets have now been updated, and they are available below:

With a wide range of topics and available training from CSH, take a look at their 2022 training opportunities. SHA Members get a discount on training when signing up, so contact Joseph Christensen to make the most of your membership with savings. Here's a popular example of one available training in January.

Click here to register for this course.

As a follow-up from the Quarterly Providers Meeting, here is a flyer that outlines the procedures for accessing communication access supports for deaf and hard of hearing individuals seeking addiction treatment and supports. The Division of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services are supporting providers in making sure that deaf and hard of hearing individuals have timely access to treatment and recovery supports.

The Boggs Center released Exploring Possibilities & Supports: An Information Gathering Toolkit. This resource provides people with developmental disabilities, family members, and Support Coordinators with Person-Centered Thinking and Charting the LifeCourse tools and concepts to use when exploring life possibilities and planning for supports.

Each year feedback from attendees helps us understand what worked and where improvements are needed for future events. Please take a minute to answer this short Google Survey about your conference experience.

Attendees can log in for access for three months to the on-demand recordings from the conference by clicking here.

Missed one of these sessions this fall? Enjoy these webinar recordings from DCM associates on a broad range of topics important to the non-profit field. This series is sponsored by: The Competitive Advantage Companies, LLC.

Value of a 360 Assessment and Now Can Ask

For a listing of the available trainings from the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights in the next months, please click here for a list and descriptions.

To access the dates and registration links for all of the trainings, please click here.

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Want all the member benefits with SHA? Visit our website or contact Joseph Christensen to apply or manage your membership.

Members can post jobs to find applicants within the wider supportive housing community. Click on the button to visit our job page.