MAINE

Maine's Work Group for Community-Based Living finalized its report, A Roadmap for Change, and presented it to the commissioners in October 2003. The Commissioners of the departments of Behavioral and Developmental Services, Corrections, Education, Human Services and Labor endorsed the plan. It is located at http://community.muskie.usm.maine.edu/roadmap.htm.

The Roadmap focuses on the following; 1) greater choice and control for consumers; 2) greater access to and availability of key community supports, including transportation, housing, recreation and personal assistance workers; and 3) building interdepartmental support for quality improvement and data integration. Some key recommendations of the Roadmap include creating a single, integrated, and accessible system of services across departments and programs; building standards for quality and accountability; and helping individuals and families control and direct the services they need.

Although the Roadmap has been finalized, the work group remains active. It is the overarching consumer advisory committee for Maine's Real Choices Systems Change grant; it will remain active at least through the end of the grant period in September 2004 and hopes to remain active beyond that. The work group helped define the focus of grant activities under Maine's 2001 Real Choice Systems Change grant. There have been 12 demonstration projects in the areas of personal assistance policy review, flexible funding, quality indicators and quality management, access to information, housing, the PAS worker's association, transportation, recreation, and data integration under the grant.

The state has recently submitted grant applications to the Center for Medicaid Services for funding under their Real Choices Systems Change Grants and New Freedom Initiatives. The proposals are designed to address the aforementioned priorities. Furthermore, the Roadmap has been the source document for the merger of the Department of Human Services and the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services, a first step in the work group's goal to develop a coherent interdepartmental vision for serving people with disabilities in community-based settings.

In terms of plan accountability, the work group plans oversee the 12 demonstration projects from the Real Choices grant and expects the state agencies and advocacy organizations to have oversight of the Roadmap recommendations as they go forward. The work group is considering how to sustain the Real Choices demonstration projects beyond September 2004 and how to use the lessons learned from the progress of those projects.

State officials do not anticipate major barriers to the implementation of the Olmstead plan. The current fiscal situation in Maine is not likely to significantly affect the implementation of the Olmstead plan. Furthermore, the plan is not likely to be affected by state policymaker turnover or state employee-hiring freezes that have been issues in other states. No legislation or appropriations directly related to Olmstead currently are anticipated. However, the department merger may mean some legislative and administrative action or regulatory change.

The next step for the task force is to continue working as an advisory board and to develop further guidelines for departmental planning and assessment.