Sinergia Participates in People First Waiver

The New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), in consultation with the State Department of Health and other stakeholders, has begun to seek programmatic and fiscal reforms to the service system through the development of a new 1115 demonstration waiver, the “People First Waiver”. There have been Listening Forums and  Public Hearings throughout the state to gather input from individuals, family members, providers and stakeholders on how to restructure the current system of care for individuals with developmental disabilities. A steering committee and five design teams have been established to make reform recommendations, and to help plan the roll out of the waiver and its implementation. Myrta Cuadra Lash, Executive Director of Sinergia, has been nominated to serve on the Benefits Design Team that is charged with “making service and supports reform recommendations that enhance person centered planning and service delivery and increase the system’s capacity to serve people in the most appropriate community setting with an equitable level of resources based on the needs assessment process.”  She will contribute to this team’s discussion on specialty populations and the service needs that should be added for people/families who are underserved to successfully participate in the 1115 Waiver. The waiver will transform New York State’s total system of care for persons with developmental disabilities within the next five years. We encourage you to visit the OPWDD website to keep abreast of developments in the People First Waiver and find ongoing information from the design teams.