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OACPDS > Developmental Services > Programs & Services > Description of services

Developmental Services - Descriptions of Services

 

Sponsored Programs & Financial Services

Within its legislatively authorized funding, DHHS offers payment on behalf of its consumers for a number of services and supports. Listed below are the most commonly used services:

  • Respite Care: Temporary relief for a consumer, family, or service provider from the regular and routine residential situation. Respite may be used to relieve day-to-day pressures, accommodate planned vacations and respond to unanticipated situations.
  • Family Support: Funds that are allocated to families to meet their specifically identified needs. The goal of the program is to maintain the unity of the family and to support the family's desires and preferences for services. Typical uses of these funds are respite care, specialized equipment, and residential modifications.
  • Professional Services: Payment for various types of professional services that are not reimbursable by any other source. The services most commonly reimbursed through this program are dental services, eye examinations, and phychological evaluations.
  • Transportation: Payment of transportation costs that can not be paid by other funding source.

Direct Services

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services offers a number of services and types of support to individuals with mental retardation or autism and their families. The major categories of service provided directly by the Department are:

  • Case Management: Case Management services can coordinate a variety of services for an individual based on the person's need and personal choice. An Individual Support Coordinator (I.S.C.) will work with the person and their family through an individual planning process. The I.S.C. will help access and coordinate those needed services.
  • Person centered Planning: Person Centered Planning is a flexible approach to planning with and for someone. There are several planning stages. Each stage is created based upon the needs, desires, and preferences of the person, with input from family and other members of his or her planning group.
    Person centered planning is a process that:
    a. Is directed by the individual or their representative,
    b. Respects, reflects, and assures the individual's choices,
    c. Is adaptable and creative,
    d. Is meaningful, and
    e. Is "user friendly."
  • Quality Improvement/Quality Assurance: The Quality Improvement/Quality Assurance System for Adult Mental Retardation Services provides ongoing review of activities--ensuring health and safety, achieving individual unmet needs, measuring people's involvement in their communities, and monitoring the many requirements which govern the Department's delivery of services.
  • Crisis Services: Each Region of Mental Retardation Services has a crisis team to provide assistance to individuals, families, guardians, and providers. The crisis team works to help individuals remain in their homes and local communities during and after crisis incidents. The team can provide outreach support, consultation, education, and in-home services. Each of the regional crisis teams also operates a residential service for short-team stabilization. Crisis services are available 24 hours a day and are available through a toll-free hotline: 1-888-568-1112
  • Public Guardianship: The Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services serves as a public guardian for incapacitated persons with mental retardation when no private individual is able to act as a private guardian. The authority of guardianship is delegated to the Department's Guardianship program Manager who oversees this program.
  • Representative Payee: If it is determined (by Social Security Administration, Veterans Administration, or similar entity) that an individual needs assistance in conducting their financial affairs, and that there are no family members or other responsible individuals in a person's life to do so, that service can be provided through Mental Retardation Services. The responsibilities of Representative Payee are then included in case management.
  • Advocacy: The Office of Advocates for those served by the Department in all matters pertaining to rights and dignity. Using available resources, advocates represent people in grievance proceedings and intercede on behalf of those individuals to uphold the rights of those served by the Department. The Office of Advocacy also acts as an information resource regarding the rights of all people served by the Department.