Developmental Disabilities Administration (for pda/handhelds)

Suggested Questions To Learn More about Agencies and Providers

[Planning Meetings] [Dealing With Problems] [After Meeting With Agency]

GETTING TO KNOW THE AGENCY:

1. How do you make sure people are treated with respect?
2. What is your access to outside resources for information, medical guidance, dietary guidance, behavioral modifications, and other services?
3. Are there any contracts the individual and/or family are to sign?
4. What criteria do you use in selecting professional consultants, such as therapists?
5. How do you actively assist people to make choices?
6. How do you make sure people get both the assistance and the freedom they need?
7. What are some names of people and/or families who currently receive services we can talk with about the agency?
8. How many people with developmental disabilities and family members are on your board of directors?
9. Do you have any written materials about the agency we can take with us?
10. How can I obtain a copy of the most recent licensing survey?
11. Are you accredited by any accrediting bodies?
12. Does the agency hold memberships in any professional organizations?
13. How long has the agency been in business?
14. Do you have a parent organization? What role does it play?
15. How does this agency handle a person's finances?
16. Do you provide reports to people and/or their families on the status of individual finances and how they are being used? If so, how frequently?
17. Describe the screening process you use when hiring staff.
18. What training do you offer staff?
19. How are direct service staff supervised?
20. On the average, how many and what type of experience do your staff have? What type of educational background do they have?
21. What is your turnover rate for direct service staff? For administrative staff?
22. What mechanism is used in supervision, evaluation, and dismissal of staff?
23. How can families and consumers reach different staff at all levels in an emergency outside office hours?
24. What backup systems are in place for medical or behavioral emergencies?
25. What are your policies regarding medication and its administration?
26. Are staff certified in any specialties or skills, or do they have unique skills, such as sign language?
27. How do you individualize services to meet individual needs?
28. How many people have you discharged from your program in the last year?
29. What procedure do you use to discharge an individual?
30. Why did the people discharged from your program leave?
31. How many of the people discharged from your program moved to less supervised or situations with fewer supports?
32. How do you respond to life changes such as marriage, retirement, shift work, complications of aging, and so on?
33. What recreational and social activities do people participate in? How individualized, available, accessible, and consistent are they? How often do people participate in these activities? What happens when individuals choose not to participate?
34. What kind of transportation is available during the week? On weekends?
35. Does the agency have good relationships with neighbors and/or neighborhood associations where people live? How are relationships nurtured and maintained?
36. In what general areas are houses, work sites, and work training sites located?
37. How free is the individual and/or family to choose the location of home or work?

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PLANNING MEETINGS

1. Do people with disabilities always attend their own planning meetings?
2. Who decides who attends or is invited to the planning meeting?
3. What role do families play in the planning meeting? How is their input sought and used in planning?
4. When and how are planning meetings scheduled
5. How does a family or individual go about calling a planning meeting
6. How frequently are planning meetings held
7. What do you see as the main purpose of the planning meeting
8. What is done to help the person get ready and prepare for his or her planning meeting?
9. Can the person change the format or agenda of the planning meeting if he or she chooses? Can he or she veto topics or encourage topics of discussion
10. What role does the person undertake or play in advocating for him or herself.
11. How do you create an agenda flexible enough to accommodate individual needs
12. What enables the process to grow as the person grows
13. What happens when the person makes a decision that is in conflict with the decision of the agency
14. How does the team encourage progress
15. How does the team and the agency develop creative ideas to assist a person in exploring new and different opportunities
16. Does the team maintain that there are prerequisite skills which are needed prior to moving forward with goals or future plans?
17. How does the agency ensure that services and supports agreed upon at the meeting are implemented?

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EFFECTIVELY DEALING WITH PROBLEMS

1. When you have a problem with a provider agency or you believe they have a problem with you, it is best to discuss it before the problem becomes larger or irreconcilable.
2. When an individual has a problem with the agency, staff, or service provision, who can he or she approach? Who can the family approach?
3. When the provider and family cannot agree, who should the family approach?
4. What is the appeal process?
5. How quickly can individuals and families expect the agency to respond to and act upon issues raised?
6. How do you deal with allegations of abuse, neglect, and violations of human rights?
7. How does the agency let the individual and/or the family know if you have a problem with them?
   

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AFTER MEETING WITH THE AGENCIES

1. Make sure you have the information you need to make a decision. Ask all the questions you had prepared.
2. Show them your plan. Do you like the way they describe how they provide services for you? Can they give good examples of providing the types of services you are looking for?
3. Notice how comfortable you feel talking to people at each agency. Are they responsive to your questions? Your interview experience may be a reflection of your future experience with that agency.
4. Will they give you some references to contact? For example, other families or people served by their agency?
5. Take notes so you can remember what you liked and did not like about each agency.
6. If you are not excited about any of your choices, consider interviewing more agencies.

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