Principles of self-determination form the core of a new model of supports for adults with developmental disabilities who often rely on others for on-going assistance in daily living activities. Workers providing these direct supports influence opportunities for self- determination-the control over, choice in, and responsibility for one's daily life. The purpose of this project is to deliver innovative content on the concepts and practices of promoting self-determination in a video- based training package for direct support workers. As institutional residential settings are being phased out in favor of community placements, and states across the country scramble to meet the needs of thousands on waiting lists for community services, support agencies are pressured to continually recruit and train new staff. The proposed video training package offers an affordable means of providing up-to-date training to the newly hired as well as the existing 400,000 residential and vocational staff. The Phase I video introduced viewers to six components of promoting self-determination. In Phase II, a complete set of four videos and user guides will be developed to provide detailed information and practice activities on all six components of supporting self-determination. Phase II activities will include evaluating the effectiveness of the training materials using a randomized two-group pre-post design with 200 subjects.

Proposed Commercial Applications

To meet the training needs of 400,000 direct support workers, effective and inexpensive methods of training are needed. This video training will provide service agencies with a cost-effective way to train workers on the new model of self-determination. IRIS Media will market and disseminate the product through direct marketing to service agencies as well as placing the product with leading industry distributors.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
5R44HD038635-03
Application #
6526375
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-2 (10))
Program Officer
Oster-Granite, Mary Lou
Project Start
2000-02-15
Project End
2004-08-31
Budget Start
2002-09-01
Budget End
2004-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$461,102
Indirect Cost
Name
Iris Media, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Eugene
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97401