Post Script

By Joni Fritz posted 07-28-2015
This is Bonnie-Jean Brooks, former ANCOR President. My last blog showed former ANCOR Executive Director, Joni Fritz's picture. Guess why? I am at her house in Estes Park Colorado. Between us, we know a little bit of history.

State Disability News Highlights for Period ending 08/01/2014

By Diane McComb posted 08-01-2014
State Disability News Highlights for Period ending 08/01/2014 Lead Story: New York Standing outside her sixth-floor apartment in the Bronx, Lissette Encarnacion says she sometimes forgets the place belongs to her. "I'm thinking I'm at somebody else's [house]," she says. "I'm ringing my own doorbell." Encarnacion used to have a career in banking, and lived in a real home with her son and husband. Then one night everything changed, she says, when her husband came home drunk and angry and threw her off a balcony. "He came home, pulled me from the hair, and just started beating the hell out of me," she says. Encarnacion suffered traumatic brain injury ...

Brand New Day Presentation at the 2014 ANCOR Conference

By Chris Stevenson posted 05-09-2014
It was an honor for Cedar Lake to present our "Brand New Day" presentation at the 2014 ANCOR Spring Conference. I am happy to discuss this presentation with anyone interested in creating/re-creating a new DSP-centric culture. My e-mail is cstevenson@cedarlake.org and my cell phone is 502-645-0709. Peace, love and unity.... - Chris P.S. I downloaded the presentation under my shared files.

State Executives Forum and Dinner

By Mark Davis posted 04-25-2014
The state executives are going to dinner in Miami on Sunday around 7:00pm. Please let me know if you are planning on attending, so I can get a count for the reservation. Also, we are having a State Executives Forum meeting on Sunday from 1:00 - 3:30pm in room Concerto D. Looking forward to seeing folks there! Mark

Thanks to ANCOR Leaders

By Bonnie-Jean Brooks posted 09-10-2013
Those of you who use the ACC and, further, those of you who have gone over and above to share your congratulatory messages to and about DSP's deserve special recognition. In these incredibly busy and exhausting days, it takes a concerted effort and a determined leader to take the initiative to go public to share information and to seek out information - particularly at the end of a busy day!!! I am thankful for each of the ACC contributors and have continuing hope for this incredible tool that ANCOR has given us!! We are fortunate to know ANCOR and for it to know us!! Bonnie

ANCOR Past-President Dissed by Home Care Association of America!

By Wendy Swager posted 08-29-2013
ANCOR Past-President Dissed by Home Care Association of America! BY: Wendy Swager (Sokol) Imagine my shock and horror when the COO for the Home Care Association of America (HCAOA) stopped returning my calls and e-mails. One of their staff actually hung up on me! Why? What could possibly cause such behavior? The use of Independent Contractors is challenging many of the basic premises on which some providers and associations have built their organizations. Recently Contractor Management Services (CMS), a third party provider of technology and support for independent contractors was refused vendor or exhibitor status by HCAOA for their ...

NADSP Credentialing

By Brenda Goral posted 11-07-2012
Does your organization use the College of Direct Support to credential Direct Support Professionals? I would really like to have a conversation with an organization that is doing this and to learn more about how you implemented the program. Thanks Betsy Gadbois Opportunity Partners, MN

Those we support cannot be left out of the discussion

By Bill Tapp posted 10-31-2011
As Chris said, the train has left the station. I would add that money and our financial status as a nation will have the train leaving the depot in fairly short order. In talking with others following our time in DC, I am struck that it will be self advocates and families that must take the message of life in community forward. They must express what they need. Supporting individuals with ID/DD in long term community setting takes a very focused workforce. We must all be at the table.

Those we support cannot be left out of the discussion

By Bill Tapp posted 10-31-2011
As Chris said, the train has left the station. I would add that money and our financial status as a nation will have the train leaving the depot in fairly short order. In talking with others following our time in DC, I am struck that it will be self advocates and families that must take the message of life in community forward. They must express what they need. Supporting individuals with ID/DD in long term community setting takes a very focused workforce. We must all be at the table.

Help a Master's Student--Survey on Organization Transition

By Jessica Sadowsky posted 04-12-2011
The intent of the survey is to find employees of organizations that provide direct health care services to individuals (both acute and long-term services). The survey asks about experiences with leadership transitions and employee engagement during the transition period. The survey is online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NF3KCGK Here is additional information on the survey: Succession and Workforce Planning in Health Care Nonprofits You are being invited to participate in a research study about succession planning in health care nonprofits. The objective of this research is to identify trends regarding succession planning and the associated perceptions ...

NADSP Response to Recent New York Times Articles

By Joseph Macbeth posted 03-29-2011
When articles like the recent New York Times, At State-Run Homes, Abuse and Impunity , are published, the impact does not remain a local or state matter as the scope of a frontpage article in the Sunday Times reaches across the globe. Rather, it serves as a wake-up call to all service providers that support people with disabilities to take inventory on their practices and strive to do better. Like so many past exposes, from Dorothea Dix’s of Poor Houses in the 1840s to Geraldo Rivera’s of Willowbrook in the 1970s, reminds us again of society’s failure to adequately protect fellow citizens who by virtue of disability require its support. Just as Ms. Dix’s work ...

Time to Give DSPs Tools for Success

By Joseph Macbeth posted 02-06-2011
As I envision the future, I am reminded that just a mere 40 years ago, most people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities who couldn’t live independently or with their families were confined to public institutions. Litigation, new funding streams, and a growing chorus of voices from parents, professionals, and self advocates demanding change transformed that system of care. Yet, I doubt that the leaders of that transformation clearly envisioned, back then, where we would be today, any better than we can precisely envision where we will be in the next several decades. Today, I can see in the transformation a trajectory which will ...

New Executive Director, Joseph M. Macbeth, offers a "State of the NADSP" address and lays out a vision for NADSP in the years ahead.

By Joseph Macbeth posted 02-01-2011
National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals A Letter from Joe Macbeth, Executive Director Dear NADSP Members & Friends, Today, for the fifth time in my life, I am starting a new job. After more than ten years of hard work by a small group of volunteers, the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals have hired a ...

Agencies with Best Practice or Quality Indicators

By Nancy Silver Hargreaves posted 08-30-2010
In Mass, there are no real incentives. If an agency received Two Years with Distinction, you weren't audited in the next two years, instead the agency had a project that it can work on and report on versus having a full blown audit. This process no longer occurs. There is a new Audit system and process that has been developed in coordination with DDS and the ADDP providers. Every Area Office that an Agency deals with may provide new referrals or opportunities for new supports and services if the agency does an exceptional job. However, it's suppose to be based on choice. It is the Service Coordinator that provides families and individuals with information ...

Managed Care

By Than Johnson posted 07-12-2010
I agree with Mr. Hooker on the positive aspects of managed care[MC]. We have experienced forms of it in Ohio. The challenge for many to think positive about MC is that it is generally associated with the reduction of funding for specfic programs rather than the various concepts of how to shoulder risk for certain services with a defined revenue amount that has some relationship to expected value, quality, and outcomes. If the only goal is reduction of expense than the other aspects are challenged and the customer's services will be harmed. Than Johnson

Failure of FMAP to Pass

By Nancy Silver Hargreaves posted 07-10-2010
Hi everyone, I was unable to be on the Board Conference Call today due to a medical procedure and was checking my emails. Mass is planning a 3.5% cut to Employment & Day Programs (not sure of the total cut)and a 1.5% cut to Residential Supports (which translates to $11 million). There is a discussion with DDS as to how this cut will be made. Lay offs have begun at the State level and providers will not get their amounts until October. This is a significant amount of money for Residential Supports and Employment/Day Supports for providers who have extensive supports for people in this area. Nancy Hargreaves

ANCOR Government Relations 2010 Policy Priorities

By Jessica Sadowsky posted 03-22-2010
In its March conference call, the ANCOR Board of Directors adopted the 2010 Government Relations Priorities . These priorities serve as guidance to Government Relations staff and volunteers for their work in 2010. ANCOR’s Government Relations Committee and Subcommittees developed the priorities, which include Medicaid, labor and employee benefits, health care, housing and employment of individuals with disabilities. These broad categories include short term strategies and issues of immediate concern to ANCOR members, such as focus on the extension of the Recovery Act FMAP enhancement. ANCOR’s National Advocacy Campaign was added to the 2010 priorities, ...