Disability Rights Arkansas (DRA)

Protection and advocacy for developmental disabilities (padd): dra's client was an 18-year-old high school student eligible for home- and community-based services through the state's developmental disabilities waiver. Dra's involvement began when the covid-19 pandemic impacted the client's ability to attend school in person. He attended virtual school; however, he required supportive living assistance while at home. The mco evaluated his need for supportive living services and determined they were not medically necessary. Supportive living services are an array of supports necessary to ensure an individual can safely live in a community setting; they are not "medical" in nature. The mco's have obligated themselves through contract to evaluate necessity for supportive living services based on a standard described as "non-medical community supports and services." A dra attorney requested and attended a medicaid administrative hearing on the client's behalf to challenge the standard the mco applied. The hearing officer agreed that the mco had failed to consider whether the services were necessary under the standard "non-medical community supports and services" when it made its determination through the standard of "medical necessity." The issue was remanded to the mco to evaluate the client's need based on a "non-medical" community supports and services" standard. This case was extremely beneficial and should create a systemic impact by preventing the future use of "medical necessity" as a standard (read: barrier) to mco's providing their clients with adequate supportive living services, which are not a traditional medical service. The Arkansas alliance for Disability advocacy (aada) just completed the first partners in policymaking program. The program graduated 8 individuals who spent one weekend a month for 8 months learning about the political process and ways they can be involved. The participants also identified and completed a project to remove barriers and increase awareness of Disability issues in Arkansas. Aada also continued their efforts in supporting self-advocates in speaking out.

Rep payee: in fy 2021, social security administration (ssa) made the decision to cancel some fy2020 reviews. The decision was made to reduce the total number of fy2021 assigned reviews by 33% due to the impact of the pandemic. Ssa also initiated a new process for assigning reviews. The revised number of reviews assigned to Arkansas for fy2021 was 47, to be prepared and released on a quarterly basis. In september 2021, ssa added dra as a co-reviewer to a fy2021 Texas review, and with the approval of a dra-nominated review, the final tally of fy2021 reviews increased to 49. Dra submitted three nominations in fy 2021 - ssa approved one and rejected two.

Protection and advocacy for individuals with mental illness (paimi): a monitoring visit toward the end of the fiscal year to a facility that dra staff have been monitoring and investigating for the last few years indicated that the sustained pressure from dra has led to substantial improvement in the physical and programmatic environment of the facility. Dra's investigation into the overuse of chemical restraints at the Arkansas state hospital led to a moderate decrease in the use of chemical restraints as well as increased training and internal oversight at the hospital. The psychiatric residential treatment facility (prtf) database created by dra was expanded to include additional information on these facilities. Inspection of care surveys are now part of the database, and dra also sent out surveys to all prtfs in the state to collect data on treatment components and basic facility information that we believe would be useful for guardians and the public to know when researching a prtf, particularly if a family member has been admitted or admission is being considered. This information is available at www.disabilityrightsar.org/prtf/