Family Advisory Council
Monday, May 5th, 2025
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Agenda:
Introduction/Reimagine DSHS Update
- Kris is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Home and Community Based Services. With Reimagine DSHS, Developmental Disabilities Administration will become a division in the new Home and Community Living Administration (HCLA) with Bea Rector as the Assistant Secretary.
- HCLA will be focused on all community services for individuals with I/DD and the aging population. Tonik Joseph will report to Bea and will help promote continuity within these new administrations.
- Behavioral Health and Habilitation Administrations will include Residential Habilitation Centers, State-Operated Community Residential programs, and state hospitals under the leadership of Kevin Bovenkamp.
- What does that mean for this group and their loved ones? Nothing changes. You have the same case managers and will contact the same program managers. If you have questions, you can contact Kris Pederson. What happened on May 1 is that some DDA employees got new supervisors. Over the next 6 months to a year, we will evaluate what kind of programmatic changes we should make.
- Kris reiterated that the reimagine work is NOT a budget savings exercise, but in honest discussions, when you talk about efficiencies you are going to talk about position changes. At the same time, the current conference budget means we do need to reduce the number of WMS/EMS positions by a certain percentage. That is not Reimagine, that is the budget. The legislature also identified other cuts required. Two things are happening at once and will impact different areas of our business. Once the governor signs the budget, we’ll be looking at cuts. Reimagine is about how do we change our system to provide greater access to folks who come through our door.
Feedback on the following questions:
- What has DDA been doing well that need to be continued? – Specific examples
- What are any concerns you have about the reimagining – and do you have any specific examples?
- What are any areas you see the creation of Home and Community Living Administration as an opportunity to better serve the I/DD community
- What’s not going well?
- What are you excited about?
- What are you worried about?
- Yelena has had the same case manager for the last couple of years, and it’s been great.
- Edison is grateful for the community integration and person-centered planning framework.
- Tarra thinks this might make it easier for people to find the resources they need.
- Edison said the first thing he thought about the changes was, “Is this in reaction to all the government changes?” he was afraid it’s the first step of the agency cutting programs and services. It’s great to know we have all these services. It’s not about the needs of the kids or the needs of the families, it’s about how well you can navigate these waters, and that’s hard because some kids are left out and there’s no equity in accessing those services. It’s great to know we can access these waivers and supports, but sometimes there are no providers, so how good are those services?
- Edison said the transparency between organization, agencies, and families, from assessment to services to communication, in a language we are all able to understand, is very important.
- Patti thinks there needs to be a way to get services to communities and counties that have no programs or few programs. Virtual respite is something they now pay for. And that needs to be revisited.
- Sam shared that this group has talked about how we can make the assessments personalized and individualized to meet their needs, but the system is not that way. We have all these separate services. We’ve talked about a la carte services that work well in OR, CA, and ID, and she’d like to see movement on that.
- Yelena would love to see more transparency into the process. For example: They applied for a waiver and have been waiting for a year and have no idea where they are in the process.
- Edison would like to see improvement in communication oversight. If we have programs and don’t communicate about them, what good is that?
- Patti said in her daughter’s assessment she gets a pot of money that has requirements. Basically, they say, “we’ll give you this and you have to jump through the hoops to use it.” Then they jump through the hoops and are told they can’t use it. The money is wonderful and we’re grateful it’s there but just don’t give it to us and then tell us we can’t have it.
- Patti said about the assessment piece: if our kids are getting what they need now (care hours, respite hours, money, services) they’re going to need them later. People are worrying whether they’re going to lose care hours.
- Patti said so much of care isn’t about the physical piece. There is a mental piece where we see a mental decline and that almost takes more hours than physical care. It’s more stressful on Patti as a provider because it takes more time to manage things.
- Sam said the lack of knowledge about these care services that are available, there’s an inequality across communities. Some communities didn’t know things like skills acquisition exist. She encounters this so often. How do we communicate programs and services to our families to avoid confusion?
- Sam said every year she gets anxiety around the assessment. She and her husband must coordinate their jobs and not understanding what’s coming in August is a fear that a lot of families have.
- Tarra is worried about whether the financial resources will be lessened, and the criteria for eligibility and services might become more stringent.
- Patti appreciates that they’re receiving emails from DDA. Her only fear is that not everyone has access to technology to get that information. How are we address getting info to folks who don’t have an email address?
- Tarra recalled a frustration with combining different agencies in the past. She would get pushed towards aging and that’s not what she needed at all.
- Curt asked Kris if she could fix all these things that she hears on a regular basis, where would she start? He asked for bullet points without all the complexity. How would you fix it? He gave the first example: Assessment hours and algorithms. None of it makes sense and they’ve been dealing with this for almost 30 years.
- Kris said the federal government requires us to do assessments and litigation and lawsuits is why they are the way they are.
- The top areas Kris would address:
- Front door – she’d develop a list of questions that we all (DSHS) asks. That would help know where the person needs to go. Social service eligibility and financial eligibility. We spend a lot of time coordinating with DVR and we would create a different door for people around employment.
- She would also focus on access and provider recruitment.
- We would want families to have one pot of hours.
- How do we build rates that sustain services
- Centralized transportation – how do we leverage transportation/Uber Health so we can use other means of transportation other than just the bus.
- Curt asked Kris what her plan is.
- She’s pitched a couple of these ideas to Bea Rector. Ivanova will work to ensure we keep folks with lived experience in the forefront of all we do.
- Kris said we take all the feedback from LRCC groups, FAC, regional groups. We put them in a centralized spot and share with our program managers and they created 2-year, 5-year, and 10-year plans.
- Regarding case managers, Curt said: they’re wearing too many hats and they can’t get anything done. Nobody benefits.
- Kris said we are trying to change how we talk to case managers and how they talk to families.
- Kris said we will fully implement the leg report re: waiver modernization. Includes simpler services, developing tiered rate services, ensuring people who provide the care can meet all the needs of the person… We will consolidate our waivers.
- Kris asked the group for feedback about the new name change. DDA will be a division in HCLA and they need a response today. Options are:
- Developmental Disabilities Services Division
- Developmental Disabilities Community Services 2 votes for this name
- Developmental Disabilities Division -1 vote for this name
- Disabilities Community Services Division -2 votes for this name
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services - 1 vote for this name
- Tarra said to be mindful about research and data we get from other states. She likes how we’re progressive, but will it make it more challenging to pull accurate data?
- Kris said disability data is across the continuum and national disability data is both physical and developmental.
- Edison understands trying to be inclusive but physical disabilities is different than intellectual and is inclined to differentiate intellectual from physical.