Private Industry Council of Central Corridor

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, significant changes occurred to the Office of Developmental Program's (ODP) 1915 Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Waivers under Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Appendix K. These changes impacted the services and supports provided to individuals with a developmental disability in order to protect their health, safety, and welfare. It is detrimental to provide up to date training and information on pandemic related changes to ensure the health, safety, continuity and quality of care is provided to the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable population. The development and delivery of face-to-face and virtual trainings, with content specific to developmental disabilities is critically needed, particularly surrounding COVID-19 topics. Many of the trainings relating to COVID-19 include, but are not limited to, changes to ODP's CMS approved HCBS waiver program outlined in Appendix K ; available resources to remain safe and healthy while navigating the community such as accessing food pantries, temporary shelters, and medical resources; accessing unemployment benefits and seeking job opportunities,. Individuals and their families depend on these trainings to not only provide accurate information and resources during COVID-19, but to also support the individual’s current stage of life, and to assist with planning ahead for life experiences that will allow them to make informed decisions to move forward on their trajectory towards an inclusive, productive and safe life in the future.

The Department of Human Services Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) currently has a collaborative agreement (Contract Number: ME92131003; date of approval: 11/26/2019) with Crisis Text Line (https://www.crisistextline.org/) that established a keyword partnership. The terms of this existing contract specify that OMHSAS establish a unique keyword (“PA”) to promote alongside the Crisis Text Line number (741-741). Upon reaching and maintaining a specified volume of 200 monthly conversations from users that enter the PA keyword, OMHSAS was provided with access to a basic data dashboard, free of cost. The dashboard has offered the following data points updated monthly, at no cost: number of conversations, number of texters, number of active rescues, percent of conversations deemed “high risk” that have a wait time under 5 minutes, percent of total conversations broken down by day and hour of day, and percent breakdown of topics discussed in conversations (e.g., anxiety/stress, depression/sadness, relationship, isolation/loneliness, suicide, etc.). These data points can be viewed through a data dashboard created by Crisis Text Line and can be filtered by area code and month. Crisis Text Line provides options for an “enhanced” dashboard for states that offers daily updated data for the PA keyword and a multitude of data points, filters, and options for data extraction (cost = $34,000/annually). There is also a “custom” dashboard that offers everything from the “enhanced” dashboard, in addition to comparison data between conversations originating with the PA keyword and any conversation coming from a Pennsylvania area code (cost = $54,000/annually). The OMHSAS team has identified the need to purchase the custom dashboard and has negotiated a cost of $45,000/annually with Crisis Text Line, which would be prorated for the remainder of the 2020 calendar year. Since stakeholders may access the service with or without the unique “PA” keyword,...

Consulting services for Opioid Use Disorder Centers of Excellence to ensure public health and safety during COVID-19 public health emergency by mitigating overdose deaths and promoting use of telehealth services and safe facility practices