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Report of National Core Indicators (NCI)

Governing Board Meeting December 13, 2023

Report of Data from 2021 to 2022

Adult Family, Child Family and Family Guardian Survey

General Information

Posted to Valley Mountain Regional Center Website December 1, 2023

Information regarding the meeting was provided to the consumers, families and stakeholders December 1, 2023, and December 8, 2023.

Public Comments made at the Governing Board Meeting

-Where do foster children fall within the categories?

Response by SCDD: They are not separated they are reported the same as everyone else.

-Is everyone surveyed or is it a random sample?

Response by SCDD: It is a random sample.

-Speaking of my culture, we are not good at surveys. What do you do to educate families?

Response by SCDD: We meet with the Regional Center, SAC6 and we use outreach to educate people.

-If someone is getting interviewed, do they have to answer every question?

Response by SCDD: You can skip any question.

Review of Data

The legislature ensures a review of the well-being of people served as well as their access to information and choices. People served by Valley Mountain Regional Center (VMRC) should receive quality services that lead to their success in life. Taking the time to survey the people served is important to provide feedback to VMRC to ensure people are being supported in the way they want to be supported. The ability to feel satisfied, knowledgeable, and supported by the regional center is a key to future successes. Comparing the results from the 2021/22 surveys to the previous review in 2019/20 will help set a foundation for growth and support for families.

Three separate surveys were sent to a random sample of people supported by VMRC. Specifically, for VMRC there were 334 people who responded to the Adult Family Survey, 217 for the Child Family Survey and 124 Family Guardian Survey. Beyond the demographic information that is collected regarding the survey respondents the survey itself is broken into six (6) primary categories of questions. These categories are Information and Planning; Access and Delivery of Supports; Choice, Decision-making, and Control; Community Participation; Health and Safety and Satisfaction. 2021/22 still presented the state and Regional Centers with the unique challenge of returning to in person and full-service delivery after the COVID global pandemic. Included in the 2021-22 survey that was not in the 2019-20 survey were some questions specific to COVID. Looking at the responses to all the questions and comparing them to the state average is important but when there is a 5% difference between VMRC and the state average a closer look is needed.

Information and Planning helps us to better understand how VMRC is communicating with people, providing information to them, and assisting in planning for services and support. The results of the Adult Family Survey show that VMRC is working hard to help people make sure that they are part of their planning process. Families are usually getting the information they need to take part in planning for services (30%) and the information is usually easy to understand (39%). Even better is that 77% of people are receiving information about services and support in their preferred language. 60% of families report that they feel Service Coordinators are listening to the family’s choices and opinions. Compared to the state average of 57%, 68% of VMRC families report that their plan includes all the services and supports that their family needs. The Child Family Survey shows that this is an area that VMRC needs some improvement. 66% of VMRC families report that VMRC does not keep them informed in their preferred language in comparison to the state average of 59%. It also appears that these families are reporting, 30%, that they do not have enough information about public services that are available to them. However, 55% report that their IPP/IFSP includes all of the services and supports that their child needs, state average is 48%. Families are reporting that they have enough input in creating the IPP/IFSP at 55% (50% state average) and 70% (63% state average) report the IPP/IFSP is provided in their preferred language. The Family Guardian Survey represents that family’s choices and opinions are always listened to at 54% compared to the state average of 48% and 57% receive information about programs and services in their preferred language (52% state average). An amazing 81% of people feel that their family members’ plan includes all the services and supports that are needed, compared to the state average of 69% and 78% of people feel that they receive all the services that are listed in their plan (66% state average). According to the results, an area that VMRC needs to improve is having enough support for people to work or volunteer in the community. Only 16% of respondents answered no they did not have enough support in this area compared to the state average of 23% responding no and VMRC was close to the state average of 38% in having the support people needed. VMRC average was 34% responding we did have the support needed. Most areas reported in the 2021/22 Survey are close to or slightly below the reports of the previous year’s results. VMRC continues to be a Regional Center that is growing significantly in the number of people that we support and the number of Service Coordinators. The results will be very interesting to see a comparison in a couple more years. At this time more focus needs to be placed on making sure that VMRC is reaching the children in preferred languages. The

results of Information and Planning show that VMRC is doing a good job overall making sure that services and support are in the IPP/IFSP document.

The second area that the NCI data looks at is if there is adequate Access and Delivery of Supports for people. A review of the Adult Family Survey shows that 54% of the time people are always able to contact their Service Coordinator compared to the state average of 48%. People are always able to receive respite services when they need 28% of the time compared to the state average of 22%. 27% of families report that they need regularly scheduled support for their family members compared to the state average of 36%. The Child Family Survey shows that VMRC needs to do a better job of having Service Coordinators who speak the families preferred language (77%, state average 90%) and finding support workers who also speak the preferred language. (66% VMRC average, 76% state average) The results do demonstrate that 76% of VMRC families feel that the services are delivered in a way that is respectful to their family’s culture compared to the state average of 71%. The families of children are feeling the need for more support services for regularly scheduled support for their child, homemaker, home/vehicle modifications, family-to-family networks, and support/training to use child’s assistive technology. Again, the Family Guardian survey shows that 76% of people said their support workers speak their preferred language compared to the state average of 84%. Even though language may be a concern 43% of respondents said that their support workers always have the right information and skills to meet the needs of their family members. The Family Guardian survey shows that additional services are needed for respite and regularly scheduled support for their family members. Again, these results are like the previous survey’s average and show that a focus needs to be placed on ensuring that people VMRC supports can communicate in a person’s preferred language.

People have the information they need to have good plans in place that offer them access and delivery of needed support. Making sure that people have Choice, Decision-making and Control over their services and support helps them make sure they have the positive control in life that VMRC wants to ensure people deserve and are entitled to. The Adult Family Survey shows that 22% responded that they always have someone in their family directly manage their support staff compared to the 28% state average. Family members need to know that they have a choice in their Service Coordinator. This survey shows that 18% reported that they cannot choose their Service Coordinator and do not know that they can change if they would like. The state average for this response is 13%. The Child Family Survey also shows that unlike the state average of 25% only 19% of respondents can directly manage support staff. Also, only 4% of families choose their Service Coordinator and 20% report that they did not choose and could not change if they wanted to. 43% of people responded that the agency providing residential service to family members involved them in important decision in the Family Guardian Survey (37% state average). Working together is important. 53% of respondents said that providers work together to provide support compared to the state average of 58%. VMRC results in this area of the surveys are like the state average in many of the questions. This section of the survey also had many new questions so there is not a lot to compare to previous years. Questions that were on both surveys do seem to have an overall lower score in 2021/22 than in the previous years.

Every person should be a valued member of their community. The NCI report dedicates an entire section of questions to help ensure that community participation is being supported. A significant part of being part of any community is having friends and support that are not paid support. Adult Family’s reports that 57% of family members have friends other than paid support workers. Community resources for children seem to be harder to access. Only 35% of Children families report there are resources that can be accessed that are not provided by VMRC compared to the state average of 47%. Families of VMRC report wanting more information and access to participate in family-to-family networks. VMRC reports only 8% take part where the state average is 15%. The Family Guardian Survey shows a different picture. It seems that some family members are not doing things in the community. VMRC average is 65% reporting doing things in the community, but the state average is 24%. Some of the reasons that are reported making it hard for family members to get into the community is a lack of transportation and the cost. VMRC really needs to focus on assisting access to the community. The results of the 2021-22 survey are like the 2019-20 survey results.

Health and safety are areas that are important to help people have the lives that they want. Overall, the results of the adult and children family surveys continue to show that VMRC does a good job of addressing health and safety issues and is close to the state average. VMRC now has 85% of adult families feeling they are prepared to handle an emergency compared to the state average of 80%, which is an improvement from previous years. Still more work needs to be done with children’s families and family guardians. Both report lower than the state average on being prepared to handle emergencies. Families of children report having issues finding behavioral professions that can support their mental health and behavioral support needs. Below the state average (31%), VMRC’s average is 26%. As always, this is an area that VMRC can continue to show improvement.

The final category that the survey looks at is satisfaction. This may be the most important measure. The regional center should be a team with families and as a team there should be a higher level of satisfaction and people having choice and positive control of their life. Fortunately, VMRC is above the state average in both the adult family survey (51% VMRC, 45% State average) and in the children family services (40% VMRC, 34% State average). The family guardian survey is still above the state average, not above 5% like the other two categories. VMRC has been working hard to build better connections and this could be a direct result of that and an improvement in previous years. Most people report that the services and support are helping their family member live a good life. Currently VMRC is within 5% of the state average with the adult and children’s families, however, the Family Guardian survey is below the state average of 85%, VMRC is 74%. This is a good area for VMRC to continue to focus on creating plans that support services and supports that will help people have a better life.

Recommendations and Plans

The process of looking at survey results starts to give a good picture of how VMRC is doing in providing services and support that help people have their best life, but it also provides ideas of areas for improvement. VMRC continues to adjust plans to better support individuals. VMRC is going to continue to work hard to hire Service Coordinators who can speak multiple languages

so that we can provide individuals with communication in their preferred language. VMRC is looking to hire a benefits coordinator who can help expand access and understanding to community resources. VMRC continues to develop Service Coordinator training to ensure that high quality support is provided to people and families. VMRC will continue to encourage everyone to participate in Person Centered Thinking training and incorporate the skills they learn into everyday life and work. VMRC has been developing a rich DEI incitive that focuses on developing communication, understanding of lived experiences. Partnering with people who have lived experiences such as SAC6 and our Choices conference on specific focus topics will be a great way to encourage everyone to learn and grow. Finally, we want to ensure people know about VMRC and what we can offer to help people live their best life. VMRC would like to collaborate to create medica informational clips about many different topics to help support staff, people served and families.

VMRC will continue to look at the results of the NCI Survey and see how we can improve for the positive and help support people in the way they want to be supported in life.