Advocacy

Understanding Barriers to Self-Determination: A Provider Perspective

Breakout Session Presenter(s)

• 

  Michael Hammond

  VP, Product Development, Public Sector Behavioral & I/DD Services
  Optum

Breakout Session Co-Presenter(s)

• 

  Cory Gilden

  Doctoral Student | Research Assistant
  National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities

To be fully responsive to people with disabilities, many service providers are working to shift their operations and services to provide individualized, self-directed supports. However, the national movement toward self-directed services has been slow, utilized by fewer than 15% of people with disabilities today. This session will share findings from the Optum Spark! Initiative’s national survey of service providers to offer insight into the barriers and supports agencies face while making this transition. The session will highlight concrete organizational and state level strategies associated with agencies’ capacity to provide self-directed services, offering attendees ideas to implement in their own organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss provider barriers to providing self-directed services to individuals with disabilities
• Leverage survey findings to develop strategies to implement self-directed services in your own organizations
• Understand how self-directed services are successfully being delivered in agencies