SERVICE POLICY GUIDELINES
FAMILY SUPPORTS SERVICES FOR ADULTS
Tri-Counties Regional Center supports the hopes and preferred future(s) of persons with developmental disabilities towards maximum community inclusion and participation. Tri-Counties Regional Center will encourage and support individuals and/or their families in their decision regarding where the person served will live. To the extent that it is the preferred future of an adult individual and his/her family, Tri-Counties Regional Center will work with the individual and their family to maintain the adult person served in their family home.
All families experience the need for intermittent relief from the stress of supporting their adult child with a developmental disability. In many instances, families with an adult child with a developmental disability will be able to provide for their own relief through the assistance of family members, friends, or paid sitters. Tri-Counties Regional Center recognizes that a family with an adult child with a developmental disability may need to provide care, support, and supervision that a family would not be expected to provide to an adult child of a similar age without a disability.
Various community programs also serve a secondary function by providing family support services and relief to parents from the responsibility of 24 hour care. Such programs include primary program supports and/or services for adult individuals and local social and/or recreational programs. Adult persons served and their families are encouraged to use such programs to meet these needs whenever possible as they provide enriched experiences for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Family support services are supports and services provided to a person with a developmental disability and his/her family that contribute to the ability of the family to reside together. Tri-Counties Regional Center encourages, supports, and assists individuals and their families to access existing personal and community resources whenever possible to meet their family support needs. Tri-Counties Regional Center will encourage families to use these resources before expending public resources to meet these needs.
Tri-Counties Regional Center recognizes that some families of an adult child with a developmental disability are not able to meet all of their family support needs through traditional sources because some individuals with a developmental disability require a degree of care beyond that needed by the majority of individuals of a similar age.
The Planning Team will determine the desired family support outcomes, will identify and access all private and generic resources available to meet all or any portion of the need for family support services, and will decide which, if any, regional center funded family support service are to be used to meet any remaining need for family support services.
Adult individuals receiving SSI/SSP, SSA, and AFDC are eligible for In-Home Supportive Services provided through the County Department of Social Services. When appropriate, Tri-Counties Regional Center will assist adult individuals to access these services as they could provide the family with additional resources to purchase personal care assistance for the individual while providing relief to the primary care giver.
Tri-Counties Regional Center will focus authorization of funding on services required by and resulting from the adult individual’s developmental disability. Tri-Counties Regional Center will use creative and innovative approaches to meet objectives contained in the person’s Individual Program Plan that are a cost-effective use of public funds.
Family support services may include, but are not limited to: in-home respite care; in-home nursing care; out-of-home respite care; crisis intervention services; camping services, social recreation activities, and in some cases, certain educational services and non-medical therapies.
Tri-Counties Regional Center will assist and advocate for individuals to acquire social skills and participation in age appropriate public and private recreational activities. Adult individuals and their families are expected to use their personal resources to pursue hobbies, leisure activities, and to access entertainment events. Tri-Counties Regional Center may authorize funding for the acquisition of specific adaptive social skills, as well as participation in camping services and social recreation activities, when the Planning Team has determined the skills cannot be taught by the family, adult day services, or by public and/or generic resources.
The expected result from the provision of any family support service for adult individuals must lead to measurable outcomes as stated on the person’s Individual Program Plan. The provision of family support services for adult individuals must be both clinically and fiscally an effective use of public funds.
Exception Policy:
Tri-Counties Regional Center recognizes that some individual needs are so unique that they may not be addressed in this Service Policy and may require an exception. Such requests for an exception to a Service Policy will be made through the Planning Team process.
Clarification of Terms:
In-home respite care services include the provision of intermittent and/or regularly scheduled temporary care in the family home. Payment for the services may be made to an agency, an individual or through an FMS voucher system.
In-home nursing care services are services designed to meet the needs of the individual to include the protection of their medical well-being and the prevention of the need for hospitalization while, incidentally, providing relief to the primary care giver.
Out-of-home respite care services include short term placement out of the family home in a licensed respite or community care residential facility or an accredited weekend, summer or day camp if a licensed facility is not available.
Crisis intervention services are immediate, direct, intensive, time-limited professional assistance to help a person served return to a previous level of functioning or emotional state which will support the family in maintaining him/her in the family home.
Camping services contribute to an individual’s mental health, physical, and social growth through a creative outdoor experience. Services can be provided in a day or residential camp setting.
Social Recreation services are leisure-time activities designed to promote personal enjoyment, peer interaction, social growth, recreation, and enhancement of daily living skills within the community.
Approvals:
