Hawai‘i has several agencies that offer a
range of services and supports for individuals with disabilities and older
adults. However, in many cases, individuals must contact multiple agencies to
find all the supports that may help them.
This becomes even more complicated if more than one family member needs
assistance.
The goal of the NWD effort is to make it
easier for individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions to access all
the long-term services and supports (LTSS) they or their family members are
eligible for, regardless of which agency they contact first. Prior to this
effort, each agency focused primarily on helping people access LTSS services
their agency offered, and staff may have had limited awareness of what other
agencies offered.
The NWD initiative recruited agencies
providing LTSS to be part of the NWD Network.
This NWD Network developed policies and procedures so that staff
understand the range of supports offered across all of Hawai‘i’s agencies and can
more easily make and track the status of referrals to other agencies.
The NWD Network includes State and local agencies that provide or
support the provision of LTSS, including:
- Adult Protective Services (APS)
- Adult Mental Health Division (AMHD)
- Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs)
- Elderly Affairs Division (EAD) for the City and County of Honolulu
- Hawai‘i County Office on Aging (HCOA)
- Kauai Agency on Elderly Affairs (KAEA)
- Maui County Office on Aging (MCOA)
- Assistive Technology Resource Centers of Hawai’i (ATRC)
- Centers for Independent Living (CIL)
- Access to Independence
- Aloha Independent Living Hawai‘i
- Children with Special Health Needs Branch (CSHNB)
- Developmental Disabilities Division (DDD)
- Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), including Ho’opono Services for Blind and Visually Impaired
- Executive Office on Aging (EOA)
- Governor’s Office on Homelessness (GOV-H)
- Hiʻilei Developmental Screening Program (HDSP)
- Med-QUEST Division (MQD) and the Health Plans AlohaCare, United Healthcare, and Ohana Health Plan
- Office of Veterans’ Services (OVS)
- State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP)
- Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
The NWD Advisory Committee, which includes participants,
families, advocates, providers, and State agencies, provided the NWD effort
with guidance throughout the development and implementation of the network.
The Staff Training Guide describes the
following NWD infrastructure:
- The NWD Referral Tool is a web-enabled system that allows staff at one Door to make referrals to one or more other Doors, reducing the number of times participants have to tell their story, and creating a feedback loop so staff receiving a referral know that it has been acted upon.
- Bi-Monthly Information Sharing Meetings are standing meetings that improve communication among the Doors.
- The NWD Document and Resource Portal is a repository for information, applications, intake forms, and other tools used by all Doors so that staff have easy access to the most recent documents.
