Iowa Prevention of Disabilities Policy Council (IA UCEDD)Hosts Successful Policy Summit
February 26, 2014
On December 5, 2013, the Iowa Prevention of Disabilities Policy Council (Prevention Council) hosted a day-long, statewide disability policy summit near Des Moines. Entitled "Preventing Disabilities and Ensuring Access to Care," the Summit attracted nearly 130 government officials, consumers, family members, and private and public agency representatives. Participants worked together to identify priority needs in Iowa and offer consensus policy recommendations.
Established in 1991 by the Iowa Legislature, the Prevention Council is comprised of nine voting members and four ex officio legislative members. Voting membership includes equal representation from consumers, prevention experts, and service providers. Duties include overseeing and coordinating the development, implementation and evaluation of prevention of disability strategies among the state departments, and recommending priorities and policies for the prevention of disabilities to the Governor and General Assembly. The Council is funded through a modest annual legislative appropriation to the Iowa Department of Human Services which then contracts with the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD), Iowa's UCEDD, to provide leadership and administrative support.
In authorizing and funding the Disability Policy Summit, the Iowa General Assembly charged the Prevention Council with developing a state agenda and providing policy recommendations regarding the prevention of disabilities and their secondary conditions. CDD Program Manager Kay DeGarmo, who serves as Council Director, worked closely with Chair Cheryll Jones to establish and implement a collaborative event planning process. Stakeholders from across Iowa, including consumers, state agency partners and many of the Summit's 15 co-sponsors played a key role in selecting the three topics addressed at the summit:
- Building inclusive, accessible communities that foster independence and access to healthcare
- Supporting children and families to optimize child health and development
- Preventing injuries that result in disability.
Administrators from both the Iowa Department of Human Services and Iowa Department of Public Health joined DeGarmo and Jones in setting the tone for a productive dialogue with their opening remarks. Participants then received background information on the three topic areas from content experts including Thomas Seekins, Ph.D., Director, Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities, University of Montana; Jennifer McWilliams, M.D., Past Director of Clinical Services, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and Marizen Ramirez, Ph.D., Associate Director, Injury Prevention Research Center, College of Public Health, University of Iowa. Luncheon speakers included four Iowa legislators who discussed the importance of recommendations regarding disability prevention policy in the legislative process and shared their personal goals for the Summit.
Participants then broke into three workgroups organized around the topic areas. Experienced facilitators guided participants through a discussion which culminated in the development of key recommendations to policy makers for addressing the greatest unmet needs. At the end of the workgroup session, participants reconvened as a large group where the facilitators presented each workgroup's key recommendations. Participants were able to respond to the recommendations, ask for clarification, offer comments on priorities and identify any additional recommendations they thought were missing.
Following the Summit, Council staff consolidated workgroup recommendations. In keeping with the collaborative process initiated during the Summit's early planning stages, the Council then invited all attendees to submit electronic comments on the recommendations. Comments were then incorporated into a final report which was reviewed by Council members and co-sponsors before being submitted to the Iowa General Assembly.
The 27 policy recommendations covered a broad spectrum of topics, including improvements in environmental access, provision of consistent insurance coverage for telehealth services by legislatively requiring both Medicaid and private insurance companies to cover telehealth services, provision of full access to Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver programs for all eligible Iowa children and adults, and expansion of the Iowa sports concussion law to extend coverage to youth athletes of all ages in all organized sports across the state. To read the full Summit report or to learn more about the Prevention Council, visit http://www.pdpciowa.org.