ABOUT

Maryland offers "The New Directions Waiver" as a means of self-directing state and federal Medicaid dollars for individuals who qualify for supports due to their disability.

This offers the disabled individual the opportunity to use those dollars to best meet their own unique needs. However, it comes with the responsibility to create a plan, a budget, and find your own resources to make the plan a reality.

No centralized source of resources exists. The purpose of this blog is to direct others to resources in our communities and to provide one example of a self-directed plan. (*Caution: The self-directed plan described at the beginning of this blog is for an individual with a 5/5 needs rating, the highest possible rating in Maryland, and therefore the highest budget possible. Most will have a lower rating and a lower budget to work with.) It is also to share firsthand knowledge of experiences that may assist others who self-direct services.

Comments are welcome. Please share your knowledge with others.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Do You Need Legal Assistance?

Have you heard of the Maryland Disability Law Center?

The home page of their website has this to say about what they do:

"
MDLC envisions a world where people with disabilities are fully included in the workplace, neighborhoods and all aspects of community life. To move us toward this vision, we focus our advocacy toward:

Access to education, housing, health care, and more
Freedom from abuse and neglect and unnecessary institutionalization
Public awareness about people with disabilities and the issues that matter to them "

Under Services and Programs they list the following as their goals for this calendar year:

"Our 2011 advocacy service areas include:

Children’s Mental Health
Adult Mental Health
Developmental Disabilities
Education
Access to Community-based Services for People in Nursing Facilities
Access to Community-based Services for People with Traumatic Brain Injury
Civil Rights in Public Programs
Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security
Voting Rights
Medicaid
Public Policy"

If you need legal support in these areas and are unable to afford legal fees, or if you would like to volunteer your services to the cause, you can read more about Maryland Disability Law Center by visiting this URL, just copy and paste it:
http://www.mdlclaw.org/

I have not personally utilized these services, but if you have, please comment and share your experience with other readers.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)