Check out this excerpt from our upcoming online version of our popular Brokerage 101 presentation: “Am I Eligible for Brokerage Services in Oregon?”
This short video explains how a person becomes eligible for brokerage services, with a brief explanation of the difference between an intellectual and developmental disability diagnosis. You’ll learn more about Portland metro area brokerages and how to get connected.
Please visit www.mybrokeragemychoice.org for more information.
This week marks twelve years since Independence Northwest officially opened its doors as a support services brokerage. Within the first eighteen months of operation, we grew from one employee to fifteen, enrolling 450 Oregonians with developmental disabilities into brokerage services across three counties.
Over twelve years we’ve connected with over 900 customers, 1,200 Personal Support Workers, and 177 Provider Organizations!
Huge thanks to our customers, families, advocates, board members, personal support workers, direct support professionals, provider organizations, community partners, legislators, and all of the truly extraordinary staff members we’ve had the honor to partner with the past twelve years.
There’s no place like Oregon and we’re honored and proud to be part of the fabric of this incredible community.
The Oregon Office of Developmental Disabilities has developed a single assessment tool to be used in determining the support needs of children and adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). Brokerages and CDDPs have just begun using the new assessment, known as the ONA (Oregon Needs Assessment). The ONA will roll out between now and June 30th, 2019.
On October 30th, 2017, Oregon Developmental Disabilities Director Lilia Teninty released the following statement regarding the Oregon Needs Assessment:
“We’ve reached some important milestones I want to share with you. The summary below reflects a great deal of work done by everyone in our service system – ODDS staff, CDDP and Brokerage staff, providers, people with I/DD and their families. Thank you for your thoughtful feedback and your efforts to help us get to this point.
The journey to create the ONA started in 2013. The Legislature told ODDS to implement a single, uniform assessment tool. It would be used for everyone we support, regardless of setting.
We engaged a stakeholder group for the project. We also hired Mission Analytics Group. Mission Analytics’ role was to ensure the ONA is a validated tool for all service settings.
The project team members have been diligent. They worked through technical challenges, revisions to the questions, and more. They conducted hundreds of assessments that were used to test the validity and reliability of the ONA. They managed two rounds of pilot testing.
We are close to rolling out the ONA. All individuals receiving I/DD services will be assessed using the ONA in 2018. We need to start the ONA assessments in January to be able to collect data needed for the Compass Project.
Based on input from advocates and partners, we asked CDDPs and Brokerages to work with us to identify staff to administer the ONA. CDDPs and Brokerages are identifying staff in their entities to perform the assessments. The ODDS assessment team will also assist with administering ONAs in rural areas of the state.
From January through June, staff will use both the ONA and the current assessment tool. In July, the ONA will be the official assessment. The ODDS assessment team will train the CDDP and Brokerage staff who will use the tool. The team will also provide technical assistance and quality assurance. They will do this to ensure the tool is administered consistently across the state.
The ONA will be administered by a staff person who is not the person’s case manager.
Benefits of separating case management from the assessment include:
Removes real or perceived conflicts of interest.
Improves objectivity and consistency.
The case manager may still take part in the assessment. The case manager will not be responsible for the results of the assessment itself. Instead, the case manager can support the person and provide information to inform responses.
Our journey to create the ONA is reaching its destination. Thank you to the many people who are making it possible.”
This week marks twelve years since Independence Northwest officially opened its doors as a support services brokerage. Within the first eighteen months of operation, we grew from one employee to fifteen, enrolling 450 Oregonians with developmental disabilities into brokerage services across three counties.
