A rapidly growing number of older individuals with developmental disabilities live at home with aging parents. This has created a potentially wide-scale crisis because caregiving parents are not planning for the continuing care of their adult children; this, in spite of the fact that their children are increasingly likely to survive them. A ky person in the planning process is the MR/DD case manager. The current case management system has paid little attention to issues related to individuals who live at home with aging parents. Case workers need increased gerontological education and training that focuses specifically on the needs of this group. The overall goal of the proposed project will be to develop, produce, and test a media-based training program on providing quality services to elderly care providers and their adult children with developmental disabilities. The completed program will consist of a series of training nodule across six competency areas: 1) the normal aging process compared to aging and developmental disabilities; 2) the service delivery system for the aging; resources for the elderly; 3) acting as information broker;4) the family support model; 5) working with the aging family; 6) the permanency planning process. In Phase I, we will develop content for the six areas by utilizing a panel of experts, convening focus groups, and conducting two nationwide surveys of the MR/DD service delivery system at both the state and local levels.
The program will be designed primarily for use by case managers in the developmental disabilities service network. The secondary market includes adult day program staff, case managers from the aging service delivery system, clearinghouses for developmental disabilities material, and national parent organizations like the ARC. Additionally, stand alone videos such as aging and developmental disabilities and permanency planning will be developed from the materials and marketed directly to parents.
