IDS Programs

Program Areas

Lifespan Stages

Individual and Family Supports
Programs focusing on individual and family supports are designed to enhance the individual's and family's roles in exerting control and choice over services that affect their lives. Supports are designed to foster family unity, prevent inappropriate out-of-the-home placements, and increase an individual's ability to become an independent, productive citizen of the community.

Prevention and Health Care
Programs are designed to address the high incidence rate of disabilities due to poor health care. These programs focus on reducing factors that place Mississippi children as the unhealthiest in the nation. Such factors include high rates of accident-related injuries, poor prenatal care, high numbers of teenage pregnancies, high percentages of premature birth or small-for-gestational-age births, high percentages of drug use during pregnancy, and limited access to health care services.

Policy Development for Community Services
Programs are designed to address policy planning and implementation for community inclusion in all aspects of daily life, including home, school, work, worship, and recreation. Projects target individuals with disabilities who are unserved or underserved. These projects focus on increasing family and community support services, thus providing options to institutional or out-of-state care.

Community Capacity Building
Programs are designed to enhance the capacity of communities to implement an interagency system of consumer-driven supports. The focus of this program initiative is interagency collaboration, private initiatives, supported competitive employment, personal futures planning, home ownership, community supports such as recreation and respite, and personal assistance services.

Educational Improvement
Programs are designed to address child care and school policies in assessment, curriculum design, placement, instructional methodology, professional development, governance, and funding that fosters inclusion of students with disabilities. Programs will focus on facilitating the development and acceptance of policies and standards that set high expectations for students with disabilities and will hold schools accountable for educational results beyond just compliance with regulations.

Life Span Stages

Early Intervention
Programs target children, birth to age eight, who have manifest or potential health or developmentally related disorders. Activities target the child's health, social, emotional, cognitive, and other developmental needs. Programs are designed to be family-centered, community inclusive, and culturally sensitive. Attention is given to interagency collaboration and interdisciplinary team functioning.

Aging

Programs address the physiological, psychological, and environmental problems associated with aging. The majority of older adults with disabilities in Mississippi are African American, live in rural areas of the state, live in poverty, and are poorly educated. This population is at increased health risk for hypertension, sickle-cell disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, accidental injury, and other chronic health impairments. Agencies serve only a small fraction of the estimated population of 1,700 persons over age 60 with developmental disabilities. Programs emphasize professional preparation, implementing model service design, interagency collaboration, and policy formulation.

School and Transition Services
Programs are designed to address the needs of late elementary and secondary school-age children. Emphasis is placed on developing and evaluating practices that lead to the successful inclusion of children in regular classroom settings. Attention is also given to the transition needs of students moving from school to adult life. Programs target independent living, supportive and competitive employment, social and community inclusion, and access to postsecondary educational experiences.