The Center for Medicaid Services has extended for another five years Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare’s pilot program for offering services to people with developmental disabilities.
The program, called Piedmont Innovations Independence Plus Waiver, has been renewed through March 31, 2013.
The pilot program, the first of its kind in North Carolina, was established April 1, 2005, to offer community services and supports to people with developmental disabilities so that they could live as independently as possible in the community instead of being placed in institutions.
The waiver focuses on community membership and empowering individuals to lead fuller lives in their own communities. It also empowers individuals to play an essential role in deciding how to plan, obtain and sustain community-based services for themselves.
People with developmental disabilities who are eligible will be able to get services through traditional provider agencies within the Piedmont Behavioral Provider Network or may employ their own staff. Every individual is supported to develop their own person-centered plan.
The number of individuals who can participate in this waiver is limited by available waiver funding from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.
As a state-funded pilot program, Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare serves as the local agency responsible for providing mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services to the citizens of Cabarrus, Davidson, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties. The waiver was written based on the needs of the five-county area.
For more information, contact Piedmont Behavioral’s access call center at 800-939-5911 or go to the agency’s Web site, www.pbhcare.org. Assistance is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.