Home-Based Support Services Info

[Guest guest]

Greetings, All!

Here I am pecking away at some of your questions as promised. I have pasted in

the body of an e-mail that was forwarded to me. I deleted part of it, separated

it out into some manageable (for me) junks, and tried to answer some questions.

I'll paste in below. Hope it's helpful. My additional information is bolded and

in blue.

I'm still on jury duty for another week or more. So I can only answer here and

there.

Charlotte

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Call Acces$ and ask them for the paperwork to fill out for an employer

identification number. See if you can get that paperwork filled out and

approved by the state, even before your funding is awarded. I think anyone can

apply for an employer identification number; it's just navigating the system to

do it properly. This is a great suggestion that I hadn’t heard before. Thank

you!

It is quite involved to fill out forms to be a PSW though, so you may have to

wait to meet with Acces$ on that one. I am one of my son's PSW's-you can have

as many as you need, although they will all need to fill out lots of forms for

Acces$. Then, we decided that my husband will be my employer, as well as the

employer for our other PSW that we will have. All the employer has to do is

sign off on the timesheets. Seemed like the best idea to have my husband be the

employer, although, he could've also been another of Nick's PSW's, in which

case, we would've had to ask someone else to be our employer-friend, neighbor,

grandparent, etc... Wonderful summary!

We can use his funding for day programs, special rec programs (although we have

to pay ourselves, then pay the SRA), anything we need to for his personal

support. I think this is a little over simplified. Developmental training, day

training, sheltered workshops (all the same things and sometimes referred to as

DT) are a funded service in the Adult Home-Based Support Services Program.

Special Rec Associations are a new service though I don’t think they’ve worked

out the kinks enough yet that anyone is actually using it. The way it’s referred

to here, a parent as a personal support worker is using their wages to pay for

Special Recreation. I think I read the “anything we need to for his personal

support” as also using their wages to buy him what he needs. Of course, we can

all use our wages however we want regardless of the place of employment.

We can use it for mileage, and our time, if we take him places. It will pay for

mileage related directed to the person’s goals. The person must be in the

vehicle. It will also pay for other kinds of transportation. For instance you

can contract with a cab company or use the local bus system. It will not pay for

trips for medical reasons. You have to use you Medicaid Insurance to pay for

that. You should talk to you service facilitator on how to do that. It will only

pay for your time if you are working as a personal support worker.

We can use it for a gym membership, anything. It will not pay for gym

memberships… though I adamantly think it should. I think the writer is referring

again to using their own wages.

We are hiring another PSW to spend 10 hours with him each week to take him to

the gym to work out, take him to lunch, take him on a train ride, to the

library, just spend quality time with him. In most cases, unless the provider

is a Medicaid provider, you have to pay yourself first, in order to pay for that

gym membership, you can't bill the state for it. (Ah, I should have read a

little farther)

What I highly suggest, is that anyone needing more information, go to the Family

Support Network website and click on the link for the new Adult Waiver program,

which is Home Based Support. Also, if the ARC of Illinois has any more training

seminars on the Adult Waiver Program, make it a priority to go to it! It is an

all day seminar, and quite overwhelming, but Charlotte Cronin (of FSN), who

facilitated the seminar, was amazing and explained everything in detail, and in

a language that we all could understand! They also supply you with a copy of

the power point presentation at the beginning of the day, so as they go along,

you can follow and make lots of notes! Gosh, THANKS!!! More seminars coming in

March and April. We’ll keep you posted.

The whole process of applying for Home Based Support is quite involved and

lengthy, but it's important to learn as much as you can, and keep going to the

meetings, seminars, anything that will go over and over what the process is

about, and how to do it. I'll tell you, until I went to the ARC training on the

Adult Waiver, everything was a big jumbled mess in my brain, and it truly all

came together that day. Even

the agencies are still just learning about the Waiver, so it's not a well

traveled highway yet. This was an excellent topic to bring up Ellen. Thank you!

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