Crisis Assistance Services

Family Voices Indiana has learned that contracts with Meridian Services, a Mental Health Provider, and Anthony Wayne Services, a Developmental Disabilities services provider –AWS, to provide supports in a timely and intensive manner for individuals with developmental disabilities experiencing extreme behavioral or psychiatric issues have been discontinued effective June 30th. Members of FV are currently reporting that "most of the entities have stopped taking new clients effective immediately because they cannot do follow-through on complex cases that might go beyond the June 30th cut-off date. We contacted the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services (DDRS) of Indiana to get an official announcement on this to share with you. We have not yet received that announcement. Because of the critical impact of Crisis Assistance Services including:

■24/7/365 Telephone Crisis Support
■In-Home technical assistance
■Out-of-Home short term residential
■Follow-along post crisis intervention

and the multiple contacts we have received from family and professional partners about this issue, we felt it was important to share the information about the change in available services as we know it at this time, with our members. If we receive additional information from DDRS or BDDS we will share that. It is our current understanding that state staff with responsibility for the Crisis System will remain in place; details about how services may be delivered in the future are unclear.

Several of our members have asked how they might share their perspective on the importance of a Crisis Assistance System. You might also want to share where you typically find effective crisis assistance if that help has been outside of this service. FV Indiana encourages you to share your thoughts with both The Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services:
Director
Julia Holloway
Julia.Holloway@fssa.IN.gov

And with your State Representative and Senator:
http://www.in.gov/apps/sos/legislator/search/

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