AGHC

At AGHC, we currently offer the following DDA services, through the Community Pathways (CP), Family Support & Community Support Waivers, to both children and adults:

• Personal Support Services
• Respite Services
• Behavioral Supports
• Nursing Support Services
• Family Supports
• Day Habilitation Services
• Vocational Services
• Organized Health Care Delivery Services

Our DDA Services Description

Personal Supports Services

Personal supports are hands-on assistance which involves actually performing a task for the individual or reminding the individual to perform a task. AGHC, Inc. Personal Support services offer personal assistance, supervision/support, and training for people living in their own homes or in the family home.

AGHC Personal Support services offer a range of home and community-based services intended to assist the individual to participate fully in-home and community life such as:

• Bathing
• Toileting
• Money management
• Care of Adaptive devices
• Developing Relationships
• Eating and preparing meals
• Dressing and changing clothes
• Home and Community safety
• Community resources awareness
• Light housework including laundry
• Promoting Self-advocacy and Self-Determination
• Use of public transportation in a natural environment
• Moving, turning, and positioning the body while in bed or in a wheelchair
• Mobility, including transferring from a bed, chair, or other places, and moving about indoors and outdoors

Respite Services

Respite is a short-term relief service provided when the individual’s regular caregiver is absent or needs a break. AGHC, Inc. will provide respite services in the individual’s home and/or community settings to meet planned or emergency situations, giving primary caregivers a time free from their role as a care provider

In providing Respite services, AGHC will ensure that families or primary caretakers are relieved from their caregiver responsibilities while providing participants with new opportunities, experiences, and self-determination.

Behavior Supports Services

Behavioral Supports services assist individuals who, without such supports, are experiencing, or are likely to experience difficulty at home or in the community as a result of behavioral, social, or emotional issues. Behavioral supports help to understand an individual’s challenging behavior, its function, and to develop a behavior plan with the primary aim of enhancing the individual’s independence and inclusion in their community.

AGHC will provide Behavior support services to both children and adults. Services will be provided in the individual’s home, a family member’s home, or in the community. Behavioral supports services include:

• Behavioral Assessment – which identifies an individual’s challenging behaviors and is based on the principles of person-centered thinking and a functional behavior assessment (FBA) is completed;
• Behavioral Plan – created based on relevant data collected and reviewed from the FBA to complete the FBA with recommended behavioral strategies;
• Behavioral Consultation – to oversee and monitor the implementation of the behavior plan;
• Brief support Implementation of Services – a time-limited service which provides direct assistance and modeling to families, agency staff, and caregivers so they can independently implement methods in an individual’s behavior plan

Nursing Support Services

Nursing Support services focus on appropriate health prevention, health maintenance, health safety and practices which reduce or prevent adverse outcomes. Nursing Support services are identified in individuals’ plans which include goals for individuals’ quality health outcomes.

Nursing services from DDA may be a part of a person’s plan for attaining the goals in his/her individual plan. AGHC Nursing Services will be delivered under the delegation and supervision of a DDA Registered Nurse Case Manager/Delegating Nurses and are monitored by DDA via Quality Assurance and the Regional.

AGHC Nursing Support services include:

• Nurse Consultation
• Nurse Health Case Management
• Nurse Case Management
• Nurse Delegation

Family Support Services

Family Support Services will provide individual and family supports for children birth to 21 with developmental disabilities on the DDA Waiting List.

AGHC will provide the following Family Support Services:

• Family and Peer Mentoring Supports
• Family Caregiver Training and Empowerment Services
• Participant Education, Training and Advocacy Supports

Day Habilitation Services

Day Habilitation services provide the individual with development and maintenance of skills related to activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, vocation, and socialization through the application of formal teaching methods and participation in meaningful activities

In providing the Day Habilitation services, AGHC will ensure to comply with the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) newly issued regulations referred to as the “Community Settings Rule. The Community Settings Rule states that services provided in facilities, congregate settings, farmsteads, and/or services that have the effect of isolating individuals from the broader community are considered to have institutional qualities and therefore may not be in compliance.

To comply with the Community Settings Rule, AGHC will ensure:

• Our setting must be integrated in and supports full access to the greater community
• Our setting must be selected by the individual from among setting options
• Each individual has a right to privacy, to be treated with dignity and respect, and is free from bullying and restraints
• Each individual is supported in making life choices
• Each individual is given choice regarding services and who provides them

Through our Day Habilitation services and activities, AGHC will ensure the individuals we serve to learn and acquire new skills in:

• Employment
• Socially-acceptable behavior
• Effective communication
• Self-direction and problem solving
• Engaging in safety practices
• Performing household chores
• Performing self-care tasks

Some of the services and activities we will offer through our Day Habilitation program will include, but are not limited to the individual’s engagement in:

• Self-advocacy classes and activities
• Transportation services
• Personal care assistance
• Local community events
• Volunteering within a nonprofit organization whose mission the individual’s supports
• Activities in which skills can be used to do the type of work the individual is interested in
• Training and supports designed to maintain abilities and to prevent or slow loss of skills for an individual’s declining condition

Community Development Services

The Community Development Services (CDS) aid the individual to develop and maintain skills related to community membership through engagement in community-based activities with people without disabilities. CDS can be provided in a variety of settings in the community which support the individual’s positive growth and development of skills and social supports necessary to gain, retain or advance competitive integrated employment opportunities.

Through our Community Development Services and activities, AGHC will ensure the individuals we serve are provided opportunities to learn socially acceptable behavior and self-advocacy skills.

Some of the services and activities we will offer through our CDS program will include, but are not limited to:

• Activities which facilitate and promote integration and inclusion in the individual’s chosen community; including identifying a path to employment for a working-age individual
• Travel training
• Self-advocacy classes and activities
• Local community events
• Volunteering within a non-profit organization whose mission the individual’s supports
• Performing a paid or unpaid internship
• Transportation to, from, and within activities
• Personal care assistance, which may also be provided during community activities

Vocational Services

Our Vocational Services offering will focus on two areas – Employment Services and Career Exploration.

Employment Services provide the individual with a variety of flexible supports to help them identify career and employment interests, and find and keep a job. AGHC will focus in the following areas with regards to Employment services:

• Discovery – A process which assists the individual in finding out who they are, what they want to do, and what they have to offer;
• Job Development – Supports finding a job for the individual which includes customized employment and self-employment;
• Ongoing Job Supports – which provide various supports an individual may need to successfully maintain their job;
• Follow-Along Supports – which provide periodic supports after an individual has transitioned into their job;
• Self-Employment Development Supports – which assist an individual whose discovery activities and profile indicate a specific skill or interest that would benefit from resource ownership or small business operation; and
• Co-Worker Employment Support – which provides support to an individual when an employer has identified that an onsite job coach would not be optimal, yet the individual could still benefit from additional support.

Career Exploration Services are time-limited services that use systematic instruction and other teaching methods that help individuals to learn skills to work in competitive, integrated employment. AGHC Career Exploration services will be provided in a small or large group setting in the community and in facilities not owned, operated, or controlled by the AGHC. The individuals we serve must have an employment goal within their person-centered plan which outlines how they will transition to community integrated employment. AGHC will also provide transportation services through Career Exploration Services.

Through our Career Exploration services, individuals will learn work-related skills such as:

• Time management
• Strategies for completing tasks
• Socially-acceptable behavior
• Effective communication, and
• How to problem-solve

Organized Healthcare Delivery System

As an Organized Healthcare Delivery System, AGHC will provide the following Services:

• Transition Services
• Transportation Services
• Live-in Care Supports
• Environmental Modification
• Environmental Assessment
• Vehicle Modification Services
• Assistive Technology and Services