This week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a

Apply to a New Challenge Competition Starting November 20 for Improving the Direct Support Professional Workforce. ACL is looking for inventive solutions to strengthen the direct support professional (DSP) workforce and to improve the overall quality of home- and community-based services (HCBS) for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). Our goal is to encourage the development of innovative business models that will help to stabilize the DSP labor market.

Throughout the month of October, our nation has been celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month and the many contributions of workers with disabilities.

ACL’s Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Program works to empower and assist Medicare beneficiaries, families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and report healthcare fraud, errors, and abuse. Watch and share this short SMP video to learn more and help others:

This month we celebrate two milestones for people with developmental disabilities, their families, and the country: 50 years of State Councils on Developmental Disabilities and 45 years of Protection and Advocacy (P&A) systems.

ACL MATERIALS NOW AVAILABLE

Vanessa Conway (left) and Kim Palmore (right) of Texas's Long-Term Care Ombudsman program and the Ark-Tex Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging.

New funding opportunities from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at ACL have been

Parents of children with disabilities are facing difficult decisions about how to keep their children safe and learning. To help, Stanford University has developed a Back-to-Safe Communities of Learning (SCOL) Decision Guide in English and Spanish. The tool was designed with and for parents of children with special healthcare needs based on input from public-health experts, parents, and health providers.

On August 25, 2020, ACL announced the transition of funding for a National Resource Center on Nutrition and Aging from a grant to a contract in fiscal year 2020 in a National Nutrition Services Alert.