SAIL on the System: Is the developmental disabilities system working? This is a new blog site for people with developmental disabilities (DD) to talk about their lived experience with the services and supports they most rely on that come from the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA). How do we know if those services are really helping or not? People who live with the experience of having DD every day of their lives are using their voice here to answer that question!
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It is important that people with direct lived experence get a say in policy that has direct impact on their lives. History tells us that lots of policy that affects impacts people were not decided by the people who were directly impacted by policy and this caused lots of policy to end of harming those direct impacted. This is why I decided to work with fellow self advocates and try change this issue. It started when their was a workgroup that spoke on the use of institutionalization to care for people with IDD and as leader in self Advocacy movement I wanted to sure people who had lived in institutions had participation on…
My experience with DDA has been mix. As I work with people with I/DD at Allies in Advocacy I have noticed 1. People on the Core Waiver seem to be very happy with the residential/employment support. Things that could make it easier is having DDA caseworkers be more open to unique employment possibilities and assisting us to train personal care providers better. The downside is many more individuals could benefit from services so we really need to help get rid of the no paid services caseload and we need to fully fund forecasting for all Waivers.