The Access New Hampshire: Living with Disability in the Granite State project is a joint research effort by a range of affiliated organizations and individuals concerned about the well-being of residents living with disabilities in New Hampshire. Its mission is to help legislators, state and local agencies, and the broader public understand the extent to which New Hampshire enables all its residents, particularly those living with some form of a disability, to live and participate in their communities. By highlighting key issues, education, health care, employment, and community supports, we hope not only to raise awareness about the barriers confronting individuals with disabilities, but also to initiate a statewide conversation about how to work together to address these challenges.

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New Hampshire’s Bureau of Behavioral Health is developing a model to fund community mental health centers (CMHC) on a capitated, prepaid health plan basis, replacing the current fee for service system. Payment reform is being sought to make services more cost effective and to better meet the needs of eligible adults who are recovering from a mental illness and children who are experiencing a severe emotional disturbance. In June, 2011, a 1915(b) Medicaid Waiver application will be submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, requesting that BBH be able to establish this prepaid health care system for reimbursing community mental health services, with a target date of December 1, 2011 for implementing the new payment system.

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Center on Aging and Community Living (CACL)
The Center on Aging and Community Living (CACL) is a collaboration between The Institute on Disability (IOD) and The Institute on Health Policy and Practice (IHPP) at The University of New Hampshire (UNH). These two institutes have been actively engaged in projects related to aging and long term care for many years. Jointly, the IOD and IHPP provide ongoing support to the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, the ServiceLink Resource Center Network, and various other partners in the Aging Network, in designing, implementing, and evaluating systems change initiatives.

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DirectConnect will address the growing direct care workforce shortage in New Hampshire by providing recruitment, training and retention opportunities aimed at creating a sustainable workforce.  These opportunities include college degree and certificate programs, nationally recognized training from Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, the College of Direct Support and more.
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The Employment and Asset Development Resource Network (EARN) is designed to provide high quality information and resources to individuals with disabilities, professionals, and family members that result in improvements in gainful community employment opportunities and financial well-being of persons with disabilities.

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This three-year project is developing online instructional modules to teach direct service employment staff to facilitate social inclusion and natural supports for employees with disabilities in the workplace.  Evaluation of the impact of training is taking place in two stages across 5 states before the final revised training module will be made available to community rehabilitation programs nationwide.

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EPM-RRTC: The Employment Policy and Measurement Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (a) investigates the impact of government policies and programs on employment, with particular attention to the effects of program interactions, (b) examines new ways of measuring employment outcomes, and (c) facilitates the translation of research findings into policymaking and program administration.

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The Family-Centered Transition Planning for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders is a two-year collaboration between the Institute on Disability and the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies at the University of Maine, to demonstrate an innovative approach to the transition of individuals with autism spectrum disorders from high school to adult life. Students age 16-18 enrolled in public high school and who have been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) are eligible to participate.

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IC-RRTC: The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Individual-Level Characteristics Related to Employment Among Individuals with Disabilities is generating new knowledge about the role of individual characteristics on employment outcomes. Despite the ADA and advances in medicine and technology, people with disabilities, as a group, have become economically less self-sufficient over the last few decades. For people with disabilities, employment rates have declined, reliance on public benefits has increased, and household incomes have fallen further behind those of other households. In addition, there are substantial disparities in employment outcomes within the population with disabilities. The IC-RRTC will work toward improving strategies and interventions designed to foster better employment outcomes for the various subpopulations of people with disabilities.

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As a centralized resource for training, process facilitation, and technical assistance, the mission of Innovation Facilitators (IF) is to advance the standards of excellence in person-centered planning through the support of practitioners, persons with disabilities, families, and personal support teams.

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The New Hampshire Children's Mental Health Competencies project is designed to assist New Hampshire’s community mental health center children’s directors, family organizations, and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a set of core competencies for direct service staffs in the children’s programs.

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Through the courses, leaders emerge who have a clear vision, knowledge about state-of-the-art supports for individuals with disabilities, and skills necessary for advocating with service providers. They know how to use the legislative process to achieve change, and how to organize communities to support inclusion. The Leadership Series enhances the ability of people and families to change laws, persuade schools and businesses to include individuals with disabilities, and educate communities about the importance of welcoming and including every member.

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In fall of 2007 the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Behavioral Health contracted with the Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire to conduct the New Hampshire Public Mental Health Consumer Survey Project. The project, now wrapping up its second year of survey work, is part of a federally mandated annual survey of the nation’s Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC). With support by the project’s advisory board, the IOD and the UNH Survey Center conducted and analyzed findings for a consumer satisfaction survey of adults, youth, and family members of youth receiving services from New Hampshire’s 10 community mental health centers. Individuals were asked for feedback in a number of areas, including: general satisfaction with services, access to services, participation in treatment, quality of treatment received, cultural sensitivity, and outcomes.

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The RENEW II Capacity Building project provides training to staff members in the children’s programs in seven community mental health centers across the state to provide the RENEW (Rehabilitation for Empowerment, Natural Supports, Education, and Work) secondary transition model to 85 youth with emotional and behavioral disorders. The project includes training, coaching, mentoring and systems support services to the participating mental health centers and staff.

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The Center for START (Systematic, Therapeutic, Assessment, Respite, and Treatment) Services provides consultation and training in crisis Prevention, management, and support for individuals with intellectual disabilities and behavioral Health needs. The mission of the Center for START Services is to enhance local capacity and provide collaborative, cost-effective support to individuals and their families through exemplary clinical services, education and training, with close attention to service outcomes. The START program model, which was first developed in 1988, presents a least restrictive model of care/support that offers provision of multi-modal clinical assessment and support, training and empowerment for families and caregivers including effective behavior management and therapeutic tools, a residential therapeutic respite facility, and optimal utilization of existing resources.

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StatsRRTC: The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics aims to improve knowledge about and access to existing data, and generate the knowledge needed to improve future disability data collection and dissemination. It is our goal to foster evidence-based decision making by people with disabilities and their families, advocates, policymakers, program administrators, service providers, and researchers by making data widely available and accessible.

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The Transitions in Caregiving project (formerly Nursing Home Diversion Modernization Grant) is transforming how services are being delivered to family caregivers in New Hampshire who are caring for older adults at risk of nursing home admission. The project has shifted the locus of control from a primarily state-controlled, provider driven model to a caregiver-directed, locally-managed model that allows caregivers to determine their needs with support from local resources.

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This project seeks to elevate and define the necessity for changes to our transportation system as a condition to change in other areas of society. It is especially critical that public awareness of the transportation system’s role and current stresses be strengthened through a common messaging framework in order to over-come short term thinking, restrictive state budget frameworks, and other challenges. This project proposes that a cross-sector coalition of businesses, service providers, government, and advocates, acting in an informed and cohesive way, can help New Hampshire address the broad and systemic challenges of our transportation system. This new coalition, Transportation Solutions New Hampshire (TSNH), will be formed to analyze existing issues, provide factual information resources, and to initiate policy changes toward a sustainable transportation system.

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The online Work Incentives Resource Center (WIRC) promotes the expanded use of work incentives to ensure that individuals with disabilities in New Hampshire benefit from the financial rewards of employment.  The website offers information and resources about public benefits programs such as Social Security and Medicaid, how they interact with earned income and health insurance options, and about employment assistance programs and services.

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Youth Empowerment Services (YES) is a three-year initiative designed to develop and promote leadership and self-advocacy skills to help young people prepare for their future.

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