An Analysis of Unmet Service Needs for Washington
Stat's DSHS Division of Developmental Disabilities
In January 1998, the DSHS Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD)
contracted with DSHS Research and Data Analysis (RDA) to determine the magnitude
of the unmet service needs problem, to explore types of service needs among the
caseload, to estimate unmet service needs during the next biennium, and to
determine cost associated with meeting those needs.
Key Findings: DDD
(through its own services or those of other divisions) is:
Fully meeting the needs of 62% of their caseload.
Partially meeting the needs of 16% of their caseload.
Not meeting any needs for 11% of their caseload.
As of the end of Fiscal Year 1997, DDD is in need of:
2,535 new residential slots or changes in placements.
2,418 day program slots or changes in day program placements.
3,136 family support, attendant care, or therapy slots.
Projected cost to meet the service needs of these 7,027persons
is over $188million.
If the Division of Developmental Disabilities receives no additional funding
to expand services during the next biennium, waiting lists at the close of the
99-01 Biennium are anticipated to be:
4,504 residential placements.
2,927 day program placements.
3,964 family support placements.
The projected cost to meet all of the anticipated unmet service needs for the
8,972 persons expected to be on waiting lists as of the Fiscal Year 2001 caseload
is$287 million. These costs are in addition to extensive planned
service development during the 97-99 Biennium and Fiscal Year 1998 Supplemental funding.
Conclusion
Failure to obtain additional funding for the 99-01 Biennium means that
the gap in number of available services will be even greater than it was as of
the 95-97 Biennium when the division was in crisis.
Services currently available in the DDD system and anticipated service
development are insufficient to counteract anticipated caseload growth.
If DDD receives no additional funding to expand services during the next
biennium, waiting lists are expected to grow substantially.
Projected numbers of persons in need should be interpreted as a minimal
number of persons with service needs.
There may be others whom the division should serve despite having no
expressed desire for services (e.g., persons with community protection issues
or living in an inadequate situation), and persons in need of transition or
early childhood services.
The rate of growth among caseload members having unmet needs for residential
services is growing at the fastest rate among all services.
Alternative strategies for addressi/ms/rdang unmet residential service need should
be explored.
The unmet needs form should be revised to allow greater precision and ease of
analysis during future unmet service need investigations.
However, the magnitude of unmet service needs for the Division of
Developmental Disabilities is extensive, and clearly exceeds any errors that may
have been introduced due to methodological limitations or the quality of the
unmet needs list.
Download
Click on the PDF symbol to the left and download
the report: An Analysis of Unmet Service Needs for Washington
State's DSHS Division of Developmental Disabilities"
Publication Date: 9/1999. Report Number 5.29. (809 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol to the left and download the fact sheet: "An Analysis of Unmet Service Needs for Washington State's
DSHS Division of Developmental Disabilities"Publication Date: 9/1999. Report Number 5.29fs. (205 KB)
To view this Portable Document Format (PDF) you may
experience errors or unexpected behavior while opening or
reading the file you downloaded. Therefore, we suggest that you
always use
the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Persons with
disabilities may call to request a paper copy.
For more ways to get in touch with the Department of Social
and Health Services, go to
the DSHS Contact
Information Web page. Technical Site Comments: DSHS Webmaster.
Copyright 2004 Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
