Missouri’s Technology First Initiative – Year One
Missouri announced its plan to become a Technology First State for people with developmental disabilities on Valentine’s Day 2019, at the Missouri Mental Health Commission meeting. Technology First means considering the use of technology for any service need or support. Missouri encourages the people we serve, their families, support coordinators and providers to determine if there is a technology solution that can improve quality of life, independence and privacy.
People with Missouri’s home and community-based services and supports have had access to both assistive technology and remote support options since 2012. Although the service was available, there was little promotion of the use of the service, or more importantly, the value of the service. Following Ohio’s lead, Missouri developed a communication and training plan to get the word out about this well-kept secret.
The first step is getting organized. The Division of Developmental Disabilities created a committee of central office, regional office and contracted staff to identify areas for improvement in technology service utilization as well as communication. Once this plan was developed, it was important for the Division to get buy-in from Missouri Governor Mike Parson, the Missouri Mental Health Commission, members of the Missouri General Assembly, other state agencies and our individual, family and provider stakeholder and advocacy groups. While the Department of Mental Health and Division of Developmental Disabilities were educating key stakeholders, other Division staff were creating training and success story videos, a web-page, podcasts and webinar tools to help facilitate opportunities for those interested in learning more.
A soft launch of the Technology First effort occurred with the first Tech Fest in Jefferson City. Following the Valentine’s Day announcement, the Division took the communication and education effort on the road by hosting 10 Tech Fests across the state between January and October. These Tech Fests reached over 1,000 people, including self-advocates, families, guardians, support coordinators, provider staff, and various state agency staff.
With Tech Fests in motion, the Division developed benchmarks to measure the utilization of technology services, provider capacity and provider (both service and support coordination) success in supporting implementation. Below are two examples of these benchmarks.
Benchmark #1 – 1,658 people receiving Medicaid Waiver funded supports will have supported technology authorized in their annual plan by December 31, 2021.
Benchmark #2 – All 115 counties will access Medicaid funding for at least one person for a) Remote Support and/or b) Assistive Technology.
42% of Counties are accessing technology as of end of 2019.
Since then, the Division has been working with Disability Cocoon and other Technology First states to continue to develop/discuss how to truly implement and measure success of the Technology First effort. Next steps include the development of an assessment tool and utilizing the NCI survey process in an effort to gather data on utilization, satisfaction and the impact of technology.
- Valerie Huhn, Director, Division of Developmental Disabilities & Wanda Crocker, Provider Relations State Lead & Technology First Coordinator Division of Developmental Disabilities