ABOUT FAMILY CARE

Family Care Programs - An Overview

The Family Care program, authorized by the Governor of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Legislature in 1998, serves people with physical and developmental disabilities and the frail elderly, with the specific goals of:

• Giving people better choices about where they live and what kinds of services and supports they get to meet their needs.
• Improving access to services
• Improving quality through a focus on health and social outcomes
• Creating a cost-effective system for the future

Family Care is partially based on the experience developed by the Wisconsin Partnership Program, which integrates all health and long-term care services into one inclusive benefit.

Family Care has two major organizational components:

1. Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), designed to be a single entry point where the elderly and people with disabilities and their families can get information and advice about a wide range of resources available to them in their local communities.
2. Care Management organizations (CMOs) like Community Family Care, manage and deliver the new Family Care benefit, which combines funding and services from a variety of existing programs into one flexible long-term care benefit, tailored to each individual’s needs, circumstances and preferences.

What is Community Family Care?

Community Family Care is an innovative program that provides a full range of long-term care services, all through one flexible benefit program. To understand Community Family Care, it helps to know what "Long- Term Care" is. Long-term care is any service or support that a person may need as a result of a disability, getting older, or having a chronic illness that limits the ability to do the things that people need to do throughout the course of their day. This includes things such as bathing, getting dressed, making meals, going to work, and paying bills. There are a variety of services and supports available in Community Family Care that can help people do these things independently or with the support of someone else.

How Does Community Family Care Work?

People Receive Interdisciplinary Care Management

Sometimes people don’t know exactly what they need, what’s available, or where to go to get the care and services that can help. Coordinating your own services can be overwhelming! When you participate in the Community Family Care program, a team of people come together to help you identify what sort of assistance you might need and work with you to arrange your long-term care services.

You are an active participant on the team that also includes, at a minimum, a social services coordinator and a registered nurse. You can choose to include a family member or loved one on your team. Sometimes people also choose other professionals, such as a personal care worker, to participate as team members as well. In the Community Family Care program, this team is called an "interdisciplinary team."

What does your interdisciplinary team do?

The team completes an assessment of your needs and develops a plan for services to meet those needs. The services outlined in your plan are individualized for you and focus on the most effective and cost-effective way to meet your needs and personal outcomes. Your care team will authorize payment for your services, and monitor the quality of the services you receive.

People Participate in Determining the Services They Receive

The first step in planning Family Care services is for you to discuss with your team the kind of life you want to live, whether you want to live where you live now or in a different place, and what kind of support you need to live the kind of life you want. This step is called the assessment. The services that you will receive are then outlined in a "Care Plan." Team members support you in developing your plan by providing information that you need to make informed choices about the care you receive. Your care plan will help you move toward the personal outcomes that you and your team identified in the assessment.

People Choose Service Providers from a Comprehensive Network

Members of Community Family Care select their long-term care providers from a "provider network." Community Family Care is required to have providers for all the services covered by the program and have enough to give members a choice about how they receive their services.

People Receive the Services They Need Through One Benefit

Sorting through multiple government funding programs to discover what you’re eligible for and what’s covered (or not) can be confusing and exhausting. The good news is that Community Family Care pays for the long-term care services, individualized for you in your care plan, through one benefit.

People Receive Services that Best Achieve the Results They Desire

The success of the Community Family Care program is best measured by the real-life results or the outcomes you get from the services you receive. "Quality of Life Outcomes" in Community Family Care represents what is important to you in your life.

The following statements are the "Quality of Life Outcomes" that the Community Family Care program strives for. YOU define what these outcome statements mean to you and your life. Helping you achieve your personal outcomes is the goal of Community Family Care:

• I decide where and with whom I live.
• I make decisions regarding my supports and services.
• I decide how I spend my day.
• I have relationships with family and friends.
• I do things that are important to me.
• I am involved in my community.
• My life is stable.
• I am respected and treated fairly.
• I have privacy.
• I have the best possible health.
• I feel safe.
• I am free from abuse and neglect.