Agency Overview
Since its beginning in 1967, the Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD) has provided a full range of educational, vocational, and residential services to meet the specialized needs of individuals with disabilities.
The agency’s mission is to support people with disabilities and their families to achieve what is important to them. An organizational structure that promotes the vision of person-centered, individualized services is in place to support this mission.
Self determination, the philosophy that individuals have the right to choose their services and their service providers, is the guiding force behind every decision and service implemented.
Using person-centered planning, the agency makes services that an individual chooses accessible by contracting with other community partners to provide a wide variety of options from which the individual can choose.
Residents of Hamilton County provide the financial backing for many services through the Hamilton County MR/DD Services Levy. The levy supplies approximately 71% of the agency’s operating funds, annually assisting more than 6,500 adults and children with disabilities.
The Children’s Services Department helps meet the developmental needs of youngsters under the age of three years and the educational needs of children with disabilities from ages six to age 22. The goal of the department is to deliver quality programming that enables children to develop the skills they need to be fully participating members of their communities.
Children in Early Intervention are referred to the agency through Help Me Grow. Help Me Grow is a state-mandated service of information, referral and service coordination run locally by the Hamilton County Family and Children First Council.
Public school districts in Hamilton County place children into two schools operated by the agency. Each child’s instruction is individualized to help him or her develop to full potential, and can include a variety of supports delivered in the home, local public schools, or a school operated by the agency. Support services include speech/language pathology, nursing, and occupational or physical therapy.
The Adult Services Department serves adults with disabilities. Services range from vocational training to production to personal-social activities to community jobs and volunteer activities. A network of contract agencies widens the variety of services available to adults with MR/DD. Adults with the most significant disabilities are served by four adult centers operated by the agency, located throughout Hamilton County.
The agency provides service facilitation to any eligible individual who requests the service or who is receiving services funded through a Medicaid Waiver. Service Facilitators operating in five geographic regions in the county carry out this service. For individuals who need the service but refuse it, a process is in place to determine risk of harm and to what extent the agency should go to encourage the individual’s participation.
Service monitoring is done by Service Facilitators who use a tool to help them determine if services and supports as outlined in the individual’s plan are being delivered in the manner and frequency specified by the plan. If services and supports are not being offered, this is addressed with the providers. If there is a pattern of failure to provide specified services and supports, this information is turned over to the Quality Assurance Department of the agency for follow-up and possible sanctions.
Crisis intervention, when necessary, is carried out by Service Facilitators, along with other agency staff. On call, 24-hour services are available, and agency staff rotate on a set schedule to cover this. Each staff on duty has immediate access to a supervisor and to special resources such as respite and mobile crisis services.
The Intake Department of the agency provides eligibility determination, information and referral services to anyone requesting them. If an initial request for eligibility leads to a determination that the individual is not eligible for services provided by the agency, information on possible service options is provided. The agency maintains a resource guide of many services available in the larger community, which is made available to anyone requesting information and referral.
The agency’s Major Unusual Incident & Prevention Department (MUIP) receives and investigates incidents of abuse, neglect, misappropriation, exploitation and any other major incidents reported. A 24-hour emergency number is available for reporting incidents of abuse and neglect that occur in the evenings, weekends and holidays. Staff of the MUIP Department work with other staff to ensure immediate health and safety of individuals involved, conduct investigations, and drive prevention plans to prevent or reduce risk of harm to the affected individuals.
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