Now They Need a Life [PDF]

A Formative Evaluation of Wisconsin’s Money Follows The Person Grant 
As It Influenced Services For People With Developmental Disabilities

John O’Brien & Connie Lyle O’Brien

Sept. 2006

Restructuring has gone well for almost everybody, but we’re not finished yet. The next phase has to focus on people having more fulfillment in their lives. They have nicer homes and their own bedrooms, and now they need a life.
–Community Integration Specialist

From the point of view of people with developmental disabilities who move from ICFs-MR to community service settings, what matters is the place to which money follows them. In this new place, will they meet staff who have high expectations that they will live a good life and willingness to learn with them what works to assist them? Or will they meet staff who lack the time, confidence and understanding to build a relationship with them that will sustain discovery and delivery of effective supports to desirable outcomes?

Wisconsin’s Money Follows the Person (MFP) Grant supports, among other things, The ICF-MR Restructuring Initiative. This initiative aims…
…to assist people with developmental disabilities to make a successful transition from an ICF-MR bed to a community setting that offers the least restrictive, most integrated supports at a cost justified by the person’s needs.
…to reduce the number of ICF-MR beds.
…to increase capacity in community services.