Community Services

Quality Assurance and Improvement Activities
Residential services. The Community Services department is responsible for a range of activities aimed at ensuring the health, safety and well-being of consumers living in community residential settings, and improving the quality of services provided there. Regular monitoring visits to group homes and other residential settings are also intended to ensure that the residents’ rights are protected, that residents’ personal funds are being appropriately managed, and that residential staff are helping residents maximize opportunities to participate in the life of the local community. Regional Center staff provide technical assistance and training to service providers to increase their skills and enhance the quality of services they provide.

Customer Value: Quality of Service Delivery. Services provided to people with developmental disabilities are based on best practices, meet people’s expectations, and are effective in helping people and their families achieve desired outcomes.

The monitoring function requires staff, every year, to conduct several hundred visits to approximately 125 residences, ranging from comprehensive two-day reviews to briefer, unannounced quarterly visits. These are collaborative activities between Community Services staff and service coordinators who conduct quarterly visits and participate in the more comprehensive reviews.

Homes that do not meet regulatory standards are required to implement Corrective Action Plans. They are given technical assistance and are subject to additional unannounced monitoring visits until necessary improvements are made.

Other services. Community Services staff members also monitor day programs and independent living providers to ensure the health, safety and well-being of clients receiving those services. As they do with residential services, staff provide technical assistance and training to these service providers. Monitoring of these services is not mandated by the state, nor is the Regional Center funded to do it.

Resource Development
The Community Services Department is responsible for ensuring that the service system includes the types and numbers of services necessary to meet the service needs of the more than 6,000 children and adults in the Lanterman service area. This responsibility covers the entire range of services, including living options, day programs, and therapeutic services. Resource development is based on an ongoing needs analysis to identify the “holes” in the service system, as well as support and provide technical assistance to service providers willing to develop or expand services in response to the assessed needs. A critical aspect of this function is the development of appropriate residential options for people
moving out of the developmental centers and into the community.

Customer Value: Service Availability, Access, and Choice. People with developmental disabilities and their families have access to the range of services and supports necessary for them to achieve their desired outcomes and have a choice in the services and supports they use.

Community Services is responsible for coordinating the addition of new service providers to the network through a process called vendorization. Every external individual, program, or other organization that provides a product or service to a regional center client must go through this process. It involves a review of the provider’s proposal describing the services he wishes to provide as well as a determination of whether the provider meets the state’s standards for vendorization and satisfies the Regional Center’s expectations for quality and costeffectiveness. Families also go through this process if they use a voucher to purchase a service, such as respite, diapers or transportation.

The changing paradigm of service delivery increasingly emphasizes family and client choice of provider as well as wider use of services where clients are included (for example, typical neighborhood preschools rather than segregated programs). As a result, the number of vendors that the Regional Center manages has increased significantly in recent years. For example, in 2002, Community Services added 521 new vendors to Lanterman’s list. The corresponding number for just the first quarter of 2003 was 291. In 2002, the center also added 354 new respite vouchers, 329 new respite workers for families already vendored, and 60 transportation vouchers.

The Regional Center’s vendor list includes thousands of providers in our area, each of which has a record that must be maintained. Vendors are also monitored by the Regional Center in an ongoing effort to ensure, for example, that they remain in good standing with licensing and other regulatory bodies.