Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Services Offered

Community

Community Life is what people do during the day or weekends.

Services offered to support a community life are the following:

• Community Access – these services are designed to assist the participant in acquiring, retaining, or improving self-help, socialization, and adaptive skills required for active participation and independent functioning outside the participant’s home or family home.
• Community Access Group (CAG) is provided in a group setting up to 10 individuals. This service can take place in a day program atmosphere or in the participant’s community.
• Community Access Individual (CAI) is provided as a one-on-one service within the participant’s community.

Employment

There are two services offered in Georgia for employment.

Prevocational Services – these services prepare a participant for paid or unpaid employment and include teaching such concepts as compliance, attendance, task completion, problem solving and safety.

Pre-vocation services are usually offered in a group setting with up to 10 participants per staff.

Supported Employment – these services are only supports that enable participants, for who competitive employment at or above the minimum wage, is unlikely absent the provision of supports, and who, because of their disabilities, need supports to work in a regular work setting. Services consist of activities needed to obtain and sustain paid work by participants, including job location, job development, supervision, training, and if desired, services and supports that assist participants in achieving self-employment through the operation of a business.

Supported Employment (SE) is available in two settings:

1. Supported Employment Group services are provided to groups of participants, with a staff to participant ratio of one to two or more but no more than ten (10). People are usually supported by the SE job coach in a community employment enclave setting.
2. Supported Employment Individual services are provided one-on-one to a person who usually has a job or is seeking a job in the community. An SE job coach provides this service specifically designed to the needs of the person regarding development, placement and/or maintaining an employment position.

Other Services

Adult Occupational Therapy – these services address the occupational therapy needs of the adult participant that result from his or her developmental disabilities.

Adult Physical Therapy – these services address the physical therapy needs of the adult participant that result from his or her developmental disabilities.

Adult Speech and Language Therapy – these services address the speech and language therapy needs of the adult participants that result from his or her developmental disabilities.

Behavioral Supports Consultation – these services are the professional level services that assist the participant with significant, intensive challenging behaviors that interfere with activities of daily living, social interaction, work or similar situations.

Environmental Accessibility Adaptation – these services consist of physical adaptations to the participant’s of family’s home which are necessary to ensure the health, welfare, and safety of the individual, or which enable the individual to function with greater independence in the home.

Financial Support Services – these services are provided to assure that participant directed funds outlined in the Individual Service Plan are managed and distributed as intended.

Participant Direction – Participant-Direction is commonly referred to as “Self-Direction”. They promote personal choice and control over the delivery of waiver services by affording opportunities for Participant-Direction to participants who live in their own private residence or the home of a family member. The Participant (and/or their Representative) chooses to self-direct his/her waiver services. You take charge of your waiver services and who delivers these services by deciding who works for you as your employees; what vendors you will use for supplies, goods and other services; and how much of each service you need within the waiver allowance. In order to self-direct your waiver services and supports, you must have a NOW or COMP Waiver; live in your own home or in the home of a family member; choose a Financial Support Services Provider to manage your waiver funds; and work with your Support Coordinator to make sure that your choice to self-direct is indicated in your ISP and your budget.

Respite – these services provide brief periods of support or relief for caregivers or individuals with disabilities and include maintenance respite for planned or scheduled relief or emergency/crisis respite for a brief period of support for a participant experiencing a crisis (usually behavioral) or due to a family emergency.

Specialized Medical Equipment – this equipment consists of devices, controls or appliances specified in the Individual Service Plan, which enable participants to increase their abilities to perform activities of daily living and to interact more independently with their environment.

Specialized Medical Supplies – these supplies consist of food supplements, special clothing, diapers, bed wetting protective chunks, and other authorized supplies that are specified in the Individual Service Plan.

Support Coordination – a set of interrelated activities that identify, coordinate and review the delivery of appropriate services with the objective of protecting the health and safety of participants while ensuring access to services.

Transportation – these services enable participants to gain access to waiver and other community services, activities, resources, and organizations typically utilized by the general population but do not include transportation available through Medicaid non-emergency transportation or as an element of another waiver service.

Vehicle Adaptation – these services include adaptations to the participant’s or family’s vehicle approved in the Individual Service Plan, such as a hydraulic lift, ramps, special seats and other modifications to allow for access into and out of the vehicle as well as safety while moving.

DBHDD Field Offices

Region 1
Counties in this region include: Banks, Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Cobb, Dade, Dawson, Douglas, Fanin, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Gordon, Habersham, Hall, Haralson, Hart, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, Walker, White, and Whitfield.

Region 2
Counties in this region include Baldwin, Barrow, Bibb, Burke, Clarke, Columbia, Elbert, Emanuel, Glascock, Greene, Hancock, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jenkins, Jones, Lincoln, Madison, McDuffie, Monroe, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Putnam, Richmond, Screven, Taliaferro, Twiggs, Walton, Warren, Washington, Wilkes, and Wilkinson.

Region 3
Counties in this region include Clayton, Dekalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale.

Region 4
Counties in this region include Baker, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Calhoun, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Lanier, Lee, Lowndes, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Turner, and Worth.

Region 5
Counties in this region include Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Bleckley, Brantley, Bryan, Bulloch, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Dodge, Effingham, Evans, Glynn, Jeff Davis, Johnson, Laurens, Liberty, Long, McIntosh, Montgomery, Pierce, Pulaski, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Ware, Wayne, Wheeler and Wilcox.

Region 6
Counties in this region include Butts, Carroll, Chattahoochee, Clay, Coweta, Crawford, Crisp,Dooly, Fayette, Harris, Heard, Henry, Houston, Lamar, Macon, Marion, Meriwether, Muscogee, Peach, Pike, Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Spalding, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor, Troup, Upson and Webster.