STM publisher Elsevier has announced that its DirectCourse is offering a new crosswalk tool to help providers of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) implement competency-based training for direct service workers as a means to comply with new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations.
CMS amended the regulations, effective March 17, 2015, to enhance the quality of services and provide additional protections for Medicaid beneficiaries receiving services at home or in the community – people with mental illnesses, intellectual or developmental disabilities, and physical disabilities. Those individuals are often supported by agencies that employ a workforce who need competency-based training to help persons with disabilities to remain in home and community settings.
The Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC/CL) at the University of Minnesota created the crosswalk tool to show how DirectCourse's College of Direct Support (CDS) aligns with these new regulations. This easy-to-follow crosswalk demonstrates how CDS, which provides competency-based training for direct support professionals, maps to the new HCBS requirements, helping state agencies to demonstrate compliance. The new requirements call for professionals to support the development and implementation of person-centered service plans; ensure an individual's basic rights, such as rights of privacy, dignity and respect; and informed choices regarding their services and supports.
The new regulations also define a more advanced concept of 'community life' and the role and value of people with disabilities in their communities. The regulations serve to advance the quality of services to all people and raise the bar for community supports, which also is the mission of DirectCourse.
Other curricula within the DirectCourse suite offer training to community mental health practitioners and physical disabilities (College of Recovery and Community Inclusion and College of Personal Assistance and Caregiving, respectively), which also support the new HCBS Regulations.
