Meeting Minutes
Advisory Committee on Services to Persons with Developmental Disabilities
Thursday, September 16, 2021
10:00 a.m. - via TEAMS
CALL TO ORDER: Wanda Felty, Chairperson;
ROLL CALL: Robin Arter, Vice Chairperson; the following Committee members were present: Wanda Felty, Lara Morrison, Janie Fugitt, Lorraine Sylvester, Eddie Miller, Traylor Rains, Robin Arter, Lisa Turner, Tori Collier
Entered after rollcall: Jennifer Jones entered meeting via telephone.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes of the July 15, 2021 meeting of the DD Advisory Council were approved as submitted
NEW BUSINESS:
A. The committee determined the meeting schedule for 2022 will be set to match closely to timeframe of when meetings were conducted during the 2021 calendar year as the schedule takes into account the timelines set for the permanent rule making process set by the state. Microsoft TEAM meeting links for 2022 calendar year meeting will be sent separately to allow for committee members to accept or decline each meeting separately to help determine ahead of time if sufficient number of members will attend for quorum to be met. Should it be determine quorum will not be met, a new meeting date can be determined.
B. Agenda and policies to be reviewed will be emailed to committee members one month in advance. A Team has been set up in Microsoft Teams for the DD Advisory Council. All Committee members will be sent an invitation to join. Policies identified for review will be added to the Team to allow those members who can access the team to review and provide comments. Those who are unable to access the policies through Teams, can provide feedback via email.
DDS UPDATE – Beth Scrutchins DDS Director:
Direct Support Professional Week- Direct Support Professionals are being celebrated this week. Governor Stitt issued a proclamation to make this Direct Support Professionals week. OKDHS is honoring direct support professionals on social media, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter you. Each day a different direct support professionals who was nominated by providers and case manager is presented.
DDS Wait List Update- Liberty initiated the waitlist assessment process on September 1, 2021. Families were notified by phone or sent an email regarding participating in an assessment. Liberty has just started doing some of the actual assessments this week. They went through an extensive training process with NRI that was over two weeks. They are starting the process a little slowly to ensure for quality assurance and plan to roll into the assessment over the next three months. The goal is to have 70% to 80% of the assessments completed by December. The purpose of the assessments is to help determine a true cost of estimate for eliminating the waitlist by serving those individuals who desire to receive waiver services. DDS continues to work individuals on the waitlist for services chronologically by date of application. There is currently no plan to change the manner in which individuals on the waitlist are worked for services.
DDS is moving forward with a statewide, online record management system, beginning with individuals on the waitlist.
Liberty is hosting two public forum sessions:
Monday, September 27, 2021 at 11:00am
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 6:30pm
In partnership with Public Strategies, DDS is offering 2 weekend retreats to families on the waitlist. This is a time for individuals to connect with other families and learn about resources. DDS is providing for payment of respite to allow the families to attend this event. DDS started this initiative quickly are building off the platform established by Public Strategies.
American Rescue Plan- DDS has received partial approval from CMS for their proposed plan. Partial approval of proposals has been the typical response by CMS with many other states, with CMS asking many questions. DDS is scheduled to conduct two vocational round table discussions to help providers generate ideas on how to access grant opportunities through the federal funds to expand, enhance and strengthen services.
Review of Rules:
The following rules were reviewed by the committee with action taken as noted
317: 30-5-482 approved with additional changes.
317:40-5-59 approved as submitted.
340:100-1-2 approved as submitted after much discussion regarding the definition of family homes. It was initially suggested that foster homes be added to the definition but through discussion, it was determined not to include it at this time.
340:100-5-22.7 approved as submitted.
340:100-17-25 approved as submitted.
OKDHS: 2-17-70 was tabled to allow additional information to be obtained regarding funding.
PUBLIC COMMENT – No comment
Committee adjourned.
