Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Supports Coordination

How supports coordination works

Healing Bridges supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities / autism (IDD/A) by promoting individuality, choice and control. The supports coordinator (SC) serves as the link between the individual, family and service provider to help people with functioning delays become self-sufficient, live everyday lives and find meaningful roles within their communities.

Healing Bridges’ supports coordination program works closely with Washington and Allegheny County providers to provide case management services for individuals with IDD/A to get them the support services that they need. The SC locates, coordinates and monitors those support services by providing advocacy and referrals to community resources with eligible waiver programs within our service area. A SC will engage individuals and their families in the development of plans to assure that their needs and wishes are addressed and life opportunities expanded.

Our supports coordinators regularly:

• Assess the needs of a person’s services
• Help the individual or family develop a plan to meet their needs
• Help the individual or family obtain services
• Serve as a key coordinator of services
• Act as a mediator under crisis resolution issues
• Assist in decision making and provide recommendations
• Check to assure the appropriate quality, type and level of service is being delivered
• Ensure that each person’s rights are protected
• Help family members access financial support to care for their loved one(s) at home

What we help with

Supports coordinators help individuals and families gain access to needed vocational, medical, social and educational services through natural supports, generic community resources, specialized mental health treatment and rehabilitation assistance. They also oversee all the paperwork that accompanies these services as well. A Healing Bridges SC is meant to help individuals build the skills needed to understand and implement their treatment plan effectively, while also providing a connection to other service providers and navigating any issues with those relationships. The SC position is performed consistently with the values, principals and philosophy of The Everyday Lives Publications, Quality Progressions and all applicable policies and procedures.

Some services that SCs can help client's get connected with but are not limited to include:

• Employment and Transitional Services
• Community and Safety Services
• Public Transportation Services
• Medical and Substance Abuse Treatment
• Educational and Vocational Rehabilitation Services
• Housing and Wellness Services
• Social Security, Income and Other Benefit Services
• Resolution and Crisis Services
• Day Program and Volunteer Services
• Family and Residential Services

Who is eligible?

Eligibility requirements for Healing Bridges’ intellectual and developmental disabilities supports coordination services include a diagnosis of an intellectual and/or developmental disability upon the results of objective standardized testing. IDD/A is a life-long condition that affects a person's ability to learn and function in society that occurs during the developmental stages of growing up.

The features of IDD/A are significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning accompanied by limitations in adaptive function levels in at least two of the following skills by an individual’s 22nd birthday:

• Use of community resources skills
• Self-determination skills
• Functional academic, work and leisure skills
• Health and safety skills