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Real
Life ... Your Life, Your Way! |
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Who
is Real Life Choices for? |
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Individuals who
are on the Division of Developmental Disabilities
Priority Waiting List, and who are eligible for
the Community Care Waiver, are offered
the option for self-direction known as Real
Life Choices.
Eligible individuals and their families are
invited by DDD to an orientation to learn about this new way
of accessing services.
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What is Real Life Choices? |
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In 2002, the Governor released a systems change plan called New and Expanded Options for New Jersey Consumers with Developmental Disabilities and Their Families.
As a major part of this systems change, DDD developed Real Life Choices as an innovative method for individuals and their families to access truly personalized and self-directed services.
Real Life Choices provides equity in the services and supports offered by DDD; it also assures that all participants apply for the Community Care Waiver (CCW).
DDD used the quality framework from the Center for Medicaid Services (CMS) when developing Real Life Choices. Elements of it include:
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Why
Real Life Choices now? |
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Real Life Choices was created out of a desire to give individuals and families the opportunity to make their own decisions, to give them the flexibility to meet their unique needs, and to enable them to accommodate their individual lifestyles.
The vision of Real Life Choices is to give a person and their family members a strong voice, and the power to make their own choices. The vision shifts the power from the professionals to the individual and their family members, and it recognizes that the individual should be able to direct the delivery of their own services.
In Real Life Choices, success is not determined by a checklist of the number of services provided to a person, but rather by the person's attainment of desired outcomes.
Real Life Choices looks to how the supports and services mapped out in a person's plan of care build independence, and at how satisfied the person and their family are with the outcomes
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When
does someone become eligible? |
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An individual becomes eligible for Real Life Choices when their name comes up on the priority waiting list.
When this milestone is reached, an individual and their family will be contacted by DDD and will be invited to attend a Real Life Choices information session.
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How
does Real Life Choices work? |
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Real Life Choices assists individuals and families with creating positive outcomes through the use of a person-centered thinking model, the Essential Lifestyle Plan (ELP). The ELP is a strengths-based tool that permits people and their families to go beyond simple identification of service needs, and allows them to focus on what is important to them and permits them to build their personal choices into their plan.
The ELP changes the focus from goals identified by professionals to goals identified by consumers and their families. Because outcomes are identified by the individual, personal satisfaction becomes the major indicator of the achievement of those outcomes.
It is through the personalized design and use of ELP that the true power of Real Life Choices will be achieved by the individual receiving services.
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