Speaker: Holly Watkins
Please briefly summarize your initiative.
Holly Watkins: So the Arc of North Carolina serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And on December 1st of 2022 our organization is going to begin providing care management to individuals with I-D-D Traumatic Brain Injuries. And what that means is that a care manager will be assigned to an individual to help them coordinate one's medical and behavioral health needs as well as any community-based services. So it was important for us to have materials, hard, hard copy materials that we could give to individuals who might be interested in having us provide those services to them. And so this grant allowed us the ability to design and print those materials so that we could have them available when we start providing services on December 1st.
Tell us about the impact of your work through this initiative.
Holly Watkins: So this initiative care management that we will launch on December 1st, 2022 at the Arc of North Carolina. It's really important and it's critical work for people with I-D-D And also, Traumatic Brain Injuries It will allow the Arc of North Carolina to provide more whole-person uh services um more centered around the entire needs of an individual person. So for example we would provide services needed to specifically address any I-D-D Needs. But it's also about medical needs. It's about needing food. "Do you have enough food to eat?" "Do you need a job?" "Do you need help with housing?" So, this will allow us to address uh several items that will affect a person's entire well being. We are really grateful to be able to do this work to to help individuals have a more healthy and fulfilling life.
Who was the audience for your initiative?
Holly Watkins: The audience for our Initiative Care management is people with I-D-D , intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as Traumatic Brain Injuries, or Individuals with traumatic brain injury. We also want to reach their families as well. Care management is very important to one's overall health. So it was critical for us to be able to reach these individuals and their families to help address, um, any needs that they may have.
Please share any success story(s) that you might want to recognize.
Holly Watkins: Because our initiative at the Arc of North Carolina launches on December 1, 2022. We don't currently have any success stories, but we certainly will have some success stories more than likely, probably into 2023 that we would be happy to share.
What else would you like for us to know about the work of your initiative?
Holly Watkins: We feel that care management is going to be a game changer for people with I - D - D DD and TBI as well as their families, um, as it will address whole person health and issues that may be affecting them. So we look forward to sharing successes and challenges, from this project later in 2023.
