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Fast Facts
MRDD WAITING LIST INITIATIVE
What is the MRDD Waiting List Initiative?
The initiative is a collaborative effort of many advocates in Ohio. The advocates are working to assist people who are on a waiting list for Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) services - primarily residential services.
The initiative is pursuing several different strategies to reduce current waiting lists, including:
- Supporting MRDD Medicaid Redesign,
- Seeking additional funds in the state budget,
- Making existing services more efficient, and
- Shifting dollars into the community that are currently spent to support institutional services.
Who is on the MRDD Waiting List?
It is estimated that more than 16,000 people are currently on the waiting list for MRDD residential services, and that 6,000 of those are not currently receiving any kind of residential services.
- Some of these people are living at home with caregivers who are elderly.
- Others are individuals who are living in Developmental Centers and other Intermediate Care Facilities for Mental Retardation (ICFs/MR) who want to move to smaller, more home-like settings.
- Still others are parents who are seeking intensive interventions through Home and Community-Based Waiver Services for their children with autism.
How can we reduce the MRDD Waiting List?
Tell lawmakers your story:
- Tell them how long you have been waiting and what you are waiting for.
- Support Medicaid Redesign, including implementation of the new Level I Waiver.
- Ask them to restore some of the $57 million in state funds that have been cut from the MRDD budget in the last three years - if not now, then as soon as the economy lets them.
- Make them understand that the cuts they are making to MRDD funding will be directly passed back to their districts where people continue to wait for needed services.
Action to date
Medicaid Redesign got off to a good start in the last state budget, but one budget cut after another has halted its progress.
Approval of pending Level I Waiver rules will allow some reduction of existing waiting lists.
For more information, contact:
Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council
8 E. Long St., Suite 1200
Columbus, OH 43215
(800) 766-7426
(614) 466-5205
(614) 644-5530 tty
www.ohio.gov/ohioddc
3/6/03
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