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To be accepted for direct services by DLC, a client must have a disability that meets the federal eligibility criteria for services. Described below are the specific eligibility requirements for four of DLC’s primary grants.
Persons eligible for DLC services under the PAIMI Act are individuals with significant mental illness or emotional impairments who reside in residential care and treatment facilities or who live in the community, including their own homes. DLC is required to give priority to serving individuals residing in the residential care and treatment facilities. Additionally, DLC must prioritize incidents of inappropriate restraint and seclusion in institutional settings.
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Persons eligible for DLC services under the DD Act are individuals who meet the following criteria:
- Infants up to age five (5) who have a substantial developmental delay or specific congenital or acquired conditions with a high probability of resulting in developmental disabilities if services are not provided.
- Persons aged five (5) and older who have a developmental disability that is severe, chronic AND
- Is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or combination of mental and physical impairments
AND
- Is manifested before the person attains the age of twenty-two (22)
AND
- Is likely to continue indefinitely
AND
- Reflects the person's need for a combination and sequence of special, interdisciplinary, or generic care, treatment, or other services which are of life-long or extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated
AND
- Results in substantial functional limitations in three (3) or more of the following areas of major life activity:
-
Self-Care: Daily activities that enable a person to meet age appropriate basic life needs such as: food, hygiene, appearance, health, and immediate personal safety.
- Receptive and Expressive Language: Communication involving both verbal and non-verbal behavior enabling the individual both to understand others and to express ideas and information to others. This usually includes reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
- Learning: General cognitive competence and ability to acquire new behavior, perceptions, and information and to apply experiences in new situations.
- Mobility: Ability of the individual to negotiate distance using his/her own power or a personally controlled device. This ability implies motor development and the ability to use fine and gross motor skills.
- Self-Direction: Management and control over one's social and personal life. Ability to make independent decisions affecting and protecting one's own interests.
- Capacity for Independent Living: Ability to maintain a full and varied life in the community with little or no regular outside intervention in the living situation.
- Economic Self-Sufficiency: An individual's ability to earn financial resources to meet both basic life support and recreational needs.
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Persons eligible for DLC services under the PAIR Act are individuals with disabilities who are ineligible for Protection and Advocacy services under the PADD or PAIMI programs. The decision of whether or not a client meets the PAIR definition requires a case by case analysis. The following list provides guidelines/examples of cases that would meet PAIR criteria.
- Client's impairment occurred after age 22 and meets the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) definition of being a person with a disability, which means having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities OR having a record of such an impairment OR being regarded as having such an impairment. Persons included may be those with traumatic brain injury, amputations, stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and other conditions or diseases.
- Client's impairment occurred before age 22 and does not meet DD or PAIMI criteria but does meet the ADA definition in the previous paragraph. Persons included may be those with learning disabilities and/or behavior disorders, such as attention deficit disorder (ADD).
- Client is a recovering substance abuser or attempting to access treatment services.
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Persons eligible for DLC services under the PABSS Act are individuals who are 18 years of age or older, eligible for the Ticket To Work, and receiving SSDI, SSI or both because they were found to be disabled under Section 223 (d) of the Social Security Act. Social Security defines disability as “The inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months”; and
- The individual needs protection and advocacy
services because they have been denied services from any vocational or
benefits planning agency; or;
- The individual needs protection and advocacy
because they are experiencing employment barriers to new or continued
employment.
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