Project BRIDGE Improving the Access of Medicaid-Eligible Mississippians to Affordable, Accessible Housing with Long-Term Supports.

Thousands of Mississippians with disabilities or chronic illness currently living in group care situations would choose to live independently if accessible, affordable housing and long-term care services were readily available in their communities.

The Institute for Disability Studies received a three-year Real Choice Systems Change grant in 2004 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to build a state infrastructure to assist Medicaid-eligible Mississippians with disabilities who want to live in the most integrated community settings and make meaningful choices about their living environments.

Project BRIDGE is working to prepare consumers and other key stakeholders to set an agenda for systems change through the development of a comprehensive plan resulting in the building of an infrastructure that integrates and coordinates long-term supports and housing services. More simply stated, the project will create a bridge for collaboration between housing and long-term support services. This collaboration will create an action plan to be tested in two model communities that will allow people with disabilities and their families to choose the housing situation of their choice in combination with appropriate long-term supports so they can remain at home in their communities.

Goals for Project BRIDGE

1. Prepare consumers and other key stakeholders to set an agenda through the development of a comprehensive plan for systems change resulting in the building of an infrastructure that integrates and coordinates long-term supports and housing services. (This includes establishing an Action Council of individuals with disabilities and their families, housing providers, long-term support providers, and agency professionals; the provision of ongoing training and technical assistance to Action Council members; and holding and analyzing the information from community forums and focus groups of Medicaid-eligible in each of five state Medicaid regions.)

2. Adopt an Action Plan that will guide systems change efforts to develop the state's infrastructure in meeting the needs of individuals requiring long-term supports who want to live in their community in the housing arrangement of their choice.

3. Field test the Action Plan by supporting two community-based pilot demonstration projects that stress innovative community partnerships between housing providers and long-term support providers. Housing Support Coordinators will be hired and located in office in two of the five Medicaid regions to create an ongoing community forum for integration and coordination between housing providers and long-term support providers, with significant input and partnering with local consumers and their families.

4. Design and implement a program and outcomes-based evaluation system for defining data needs and purpose, defining audiences for data reports, identifying sources for data, defining research methodology and instrumentation for both quantitative and qualitative measures, establishing a data storage system, collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting data.

Project BRIDGE staff:

Royal Walker, Project Director

Alma Ellis, Project Coordinator

Roy Hart, Coordinator for Family/Consumer Partnerships

Cassie Hicks, Coordinator for Housing

Charles Hughes, Evaluation Specialist

Project BRIDGE
Action Council

Committees

Training & Technical Assistance

Needs Assessment

System Performance Review

Consumer/Family Affairs

Interagency Coordination

Public Awareness

Evaluation

Executive

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