WHATEVER IT TAKES
Services and Supports
- Applying for Services
- Eligibility
- Cost of Services
- Ineligibility
- Service Coordination
- Crisis Intervention
- Home and Community Based Medicaid Waiver
- Missouri Family Directed Support Program
- Certification & Quality Enhancement
- Sarah Jian Lopez Waiver
- Choices for Families
- Family Stipend and Loan
- Northwest Missouri Autism Project
You may apply or refer someone for services by contacting an Intake worker at (816) 889 - 3452 .
A developmental disability is a long-term condition that significantly delays or limits mental or physical development and substantially interferes with such life activities as self care, communication, learning, decision-making, capacity for independent living, and mobility and occurs before a person reaches age 22.
The cost to the person receiving services is determined by ability to pay. When a person applies for services, regional center staff will ask for information about the individual or family income and the financial resources of the person for whom services are being sought. Most services are subject to minimal charges. More detailed information is available in the information on Sharing the Cost of Services.
Persons determined ineligible for services have the right to appeal. At your request, staff personnel are available to assist in developing an appeal. More detailed information about appeals is provided in a brochure, "Your Right to Appeal," which is available to you.
Personnel at Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services, which maintains a toll-free telephone number (800 392-8667), also are available to assist in appealing decisions on eligibility or in securing services from other agencies
.Service coordination is a series of activities designed to support individuals with desired services and supports, assistance with funding various services and supports, monitoring the quality of services and supports accessed by an individual and their family and advocating for improvement in the array of services and supports available.
Crisis Intervention activities assist families by designing appropriate intervention and support strategies for individuals with challenging behaviors.
Home and Community Based Medicaid Waiver
The waiver is used as the primary source of funding for people who live in the community. The division uses general revenue funds to match federal Medicaid dollars to pay for services under the waiver. The waiver includes people who live in group homes, supported living, and with their families.
Missouri Family Directed Support Program
A program for families who have made a commitment to care for their family member with a developmental disability in their home. It is different from many of the other programs currently available through the Division of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities in that it will offer more choices in the kinds of supports and services families need as well as who provides them.
In this program, families must take a very active role in identifying their own needs and working with the Division to meet those needs. For some services, families will be able to hire their own providers, rather than being limited to those who currently have contracts with the regional center. In some respects, families will be coordinating their own services-working together with a Support Partner (service coordinator) to develop and access supports in their communities, and to bring together all of the various agencies which provide support for that individual and family, including the Department of Mental Health.
Certification and Quality Enhancement
Providers that receive Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver Funding are evaluated and an enhancement plan is developed by the agency and Kansas City Regional Center to help ensure that desired outcomes are met, and to develop community linkages for people they support. The long-range goal of this program is to change the way persons with developmental disabilities are perceived within their communities.
The Sarah Jian Lopez Medicaid Waiver allows access to funding for appropriate care and support for children with developmental disabilities so they may continue living at home with their families.
Medicaid guidelines require parental income and resources be considered for children who live at home, but allow such income and resources to be disregarded for children who live out of the home, in an institution, a group home, or in other residential settings. The family of Sarah Jian Lopez, who was born with developmental disabilities, lobbied the Missouri General Assembly to change some of the requirements in the Medicaid program. The waiver, which went into effect in 1996, is named after Sarah, who died at the age of five.
The waiver allows parental income and resources to be disregarded for permanently and totally disabled children living at home who otherwise would require services at an institution.
Eligibility is based on the following guidelines: the income and resources of the child must not exceed Medicaid financial guidelines; the child's condition must meet the criteria set by Medicaid for the permanently and totally disabled; the child must be certified to need the level of services provided by an intermediate care facility designed to treat mental retardation; and the cost of providing the needed services in the child's home can be no greater than the cost of the services provided in an intermediate care facility.
The Sarah Jian Lopez Waiver will allow up to 200 children, under age 18, with developmental disabilities to receive specialized care funded by Medicaid while continuing to live at home with their parents.
The program provides funds to help meet the needs of family members and people with disabilities who live at home. Families either pay for services and submit receipts for reimbursement, or obtain vouchers to purchase services. The vendors providing the services then turn the vouchers in for repayment. The program can be used for many family support services for which there may not be a contracted provider available.
These programs began in 1993 to assist families who have children (under age 18) with developmental disabilities living at home. The programs help maintain and enhance families' ability to care for their children at home. The monthly cash stipend, which can amount to the maximum federal SSI payment for an individual with a disability who lives at home, can be used for goods and services to benefit the child. Low-interest loans, with a maximum amount of $10,000 for a 60-month period, are also available for families who may not be able to get a loan through traditional means.
Northwest Missouri Autism Project
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. Persons with autism may be severely impaired in reasoning, communication and social interactions. As part of the Northwest District's Autism Project, Kansas City Regional Center helps to secure services and supports for individuals with autism.
Services and Supports