4.
5. AAIDD SIS Assessment Services
AAIDD can provide trained, reliable and experienced SIS interviewers to states interested in seeking help in conducting SIS assessments with clients. As an integral part of this service, comprehensive “look-behind” supports are offered by AAIDD through its senior SIS trainers. This component facilitates data collection; ensures data integrity particularly data reliability; and effective, open communication between state officials, stakeholders, respondents including the individual with an intellectual and developmental disability, field staff, and SIS interviewers. This service may also include help with logistics of interview arrangements as well as data entry. AAIDD provides a final report to the state after completion of the project.
AAIDD Supports Intensity Scale Interviewer Services
Why engage AAIDD’s interviewer services?
Here are some benefits to consider:
It ensures quality data – AAIDD’s SIS assessors are selected by AAIDD’s trainers, and all receive rigorous training and are current with their quality assurance training requirements. Furthermore, AAIDD trainers perform Interviewer Reliability Reviews on a percentage of the overall assessments as additional quality measure.
AAIDD’s standard of quality is not just in the data, but also in the communication surrounding the SIS tool. In fact, we call our assessors “AAIDD SIS Ambassadors”, because not only are they skilled at conducting assessments, they are also proficient in communicating the supports-oriented SIS philosophy to the public and all involved in the interview process.
It saves time – Instead of spending months training your internal staff at the front end of the pilot, you have a team of quality assessors readily available to conduct SIS. This is attractive especially when states have budgetary constraints or a limited workforce. While newly trained assessors experience a learning curve getting used to the multi-faceted aspects of conducting SIS interviews as part of their regular work routine, AAIDD assessors routinely conduct a minimum of 3 assessments a day, 5 days a week.
It is efficient – AAIDD’s SIS team is experienced in handling the various aspects of running interview projects. The rich experiences and lessons gleaned from other states by our team will help better position your state/province in strategic planning and day-to-day administrative tasks.
It helps craft the message – A typical precursor to a pilot project is communication. AAIDD often plays a role in the state or the agency’s communication activities with its key stakeholders. Whether it is participating in stakeholder meetings, respondent orientations, or through SIS assessor’s communication with providers and respondents, such involvement helps reinforce the true intent and values of the SIS.
It helps address (the perception of) conflict of interest issues– This is especially important when states decide to use SIS for resource allocation---- having an external, independent team of reliable assessors may help avoid potential perceptions of “skewed” SIS data that can impact a person’s funding level.
SUMMARIES OF STATE PILOT PROJECTS
Oregon Pilot:
Size: 400 assessments
Timeline: June – September, 2007
Background:
AAIDD supported the state of Oregon in different capacities, including consulting services on SIS implementation, technical support to collect assessment data, and providing interviewers to conduct SIS assessments. Further, in order to ensure the reliability of the assessment data, AAIDD senior SIS trainers administered interviewer reliability reviews on 10% of the total assessments.
Working with its partners, AAIDD facilitated the sharing of supplemental questions from other states to include questions on additional medical, behavioral areas and protective supervision. The “Oregon Supplemental Questions” have since been widely adopted by many other states/provinces. On the information technology end, AAIDD worked with Oregon to elaborate strategies for information access and control, such as setting up levels of security and enabling locking of data for security reasons, and customizing reports to meet the needs of program managers, data analysts, and IT staff.
Upon project completion, Oregon used the data to develop Individualized Budget Amounts and standardized funding for long-term supports for people with developmental disabilities. Through this project, people with developmental disabilities have a greater degree of choice and consistency of service rates in community living and employment settings.
What Oregon has to say about AAIDD Interviewer Services?
Jan Morgan, Manager for the Oregon Restructuring Budgets, Assessments and Rates (ReBAR) project says, “We have enjoyed a rare, and much-appreciated relationship of cooperation, flexibility, and openness with the team at AAIDD.”
Maryland Pilot:
Size: 475 assessments
Timeline: March 2009-December 2010
Background:
In 2009, AAIDD conducted about 100 SIS assessments for Maryland as part of the state’s efforts to close the Rosewood Center, an intermediate care facility (ICF) for individuals with intellectual disabilities. SIS assessments were conducted to gauge support needs for a majority of Rosewood’s residents who transitioned into community placements. As part of AAIDD’s interviewer services, AAIDD assessors utilized the Rosewood Forensics list to complete SIS assessments on individuals with complex or challenging medical and/or behavioral needs.
In 2010, AAIDD continued its interviewer services with the state of Maryland to complete an additional 375 assessments. This data was used as the basis to develop funding allocation algorithm. Simultaneous to the interview process, AAIDD provided training to the state to enhance its internal capacity by cultivating new SIS assessors. For both phases of the project (interview and training), interviewer reliability reviews were conducted on 10% of the assessment data. Additionally, AAIDD supported the state of Maryland in providing data entry and data report of SIS assessments using SISOnline and SIS Venture.
New Mexico Pilot:
Pilot size and timeline: 960 assessments (April –December, 2011)
Ongoing assessment services size and timeline: Approx. 1000 assessments (2012)
Background:
In 2011, AAIDD’s SIS team assisted the state of New Mexico to gather data on about 960 SIS assessments, which were used as the basis for the State to develop a new rate setting approach and rate models. The State has continued its arrangement with AAIDD in 2012 to further collect SIS data so that the information, in addition to fine-tuning the State’s resource allocation policies, will inform the person’s Individualized Service Plans (ISP).
AAIDD’s team of assessors has been actively engaged in the different regions within the state to accomplish the targeted number of 1900 SIS assessments. For the culturally or linguistically diverse sub-groups within the State, such as the Native American populations or Spanish-speaking populations, AAIDD assessors have consistently handled the interviews with cultural awareness, sensitivity, and respect.
Compared to the typical interview service offerings, AAIDD has offered a most comprehensive package of services during this pilot. Specific tasks include --providing reliable interviewers, conducting interviewer reliability review on a portion of the interviews, providing a lead trainer for overall project administration; communication with state officials as well as stakeholders and respondents; providing reports; providing training to the state’s team of SIS assessors, and last but not least, scheduling the interviews with NM providers, respondents and AAIDD SIS assessors. As with most states, the state chose to use SISOnline and SIS Venture for the convenience of data input and storage.