NCI

Determining the quality of services provided to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families is a paramount concern.  Community Quality oversees Kentucky’s National Core Indicators, an endeavor aimed at positively impacting the lives of Kentuckians’ with developmental disabilities through research efforts.  Nationally developed consumer and family satisfaction measures are used to examine outcomes and performance of state agency service providers.  The project trains interviewers, many of whom have disabilities or have a family member with a disability, to go into the communities of randomly selected adults who currently receive at least one service through the Kentucky Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities. Over the past eleven years, over 5500 consumers, families and caregivers have participated in face-to-face, telephone, online and mail out surveys.  As the estimated number of people with developmental disabilities in Kentucky is as high as 75,000, the potential influence of this project is vast. This effort is sponsored by the Kentucky Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities.  To see the latest results of National Core Indicators, go to National Core Indicators.

Perhaps the most important new development for NCI in Kentucky is the creation of the Kentucky NCI Quality Improvement Committee that has a goal of providing recommendations to the state based upon NCI data. This group is comprised of family members, people with disabilities, KY NCI staff and interviewers, providers, Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities staff, and University of Kentucky researchers. The group has been reviewing data from core indicators and other related information. The 2010 recommendation report was submitted to the Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities in October, 2010. This report addressed and provided recommendations to focus on areas including employment in the community, health & wellness, medication use, and loneliness. In addition, we are also looking at the impact that transitioning from ICF/ID to the community has on life outcome indicators.