Office of Disability Services Coordination

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission created the Office of Disability Services Coordination in January 2021.

The Office of Disability Services Coordination (ODSC) aims to improve outcomes for Texans with disabilities by:

  • Continuing to enhance HHSC’s delivery of services for people with disabilities by focusing on long-term solutions across the HHS system.
  • Coordinating and communicating with other state agencies as well as external parties to ensure high-quality programs that are easy to navigate.
  • Seeking stakeholder engagement, support and feedback.
  • Ensuring that HHS disability services and supports align with agency strategic goals.

Email the HHSC ODSC for more information. Review a list of HHS services and providers.

How ODSC Helps

Connect

We connect external stakeholders with the HHSC team member or program that can best assist with an issue or answer questions. This ensures continuity of the user’s experience and eases navigation of HHSC’s programs, services and supports.

Share

We promote, partner or share beneficial opportunities with our internal collaborators and external stakeholders within the disability community.

Engage

We lead system-level improvement projects and ensure that internal and external stakeholders can provide and seek input. We strive for cross-disability collaboration by using voices from, and always learning more about, many disability communities, their experiences and innovations in care.

Our system-level improvement projects include:

  • Direct Service Workforce Development Taskforce
  • Disability Coordination Forums, including the monthly Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind Meeting and the monthly IDD Coordination Meeting

Person-Centered Accomplishments

HHS has completed the following initiatives and accomplishments that align, support, and promote the person-centered philosophy. Additionally, HHS continues to facilitate a quarterly meeting with internal HHS staff and external stakeholders to stay informed and engaged regarding PCP.

  • Secured a technical assistance grant from the National Center for Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) to organize and grow person-centered practices (PCP) across HHS leadership and systems. This grant entailed development of a committee and several subcommittees.
  • Organized trainings to infuse and integrate PCP by specific populations, such as people with dementia, older adults, and the service member population. This project was funded by the Money Follows the Person Demonstration program.
  • Created a Person Centered New Employee Training Video for HHS staff.
  • Secured a grant through the Administration of Community Living that entails investigation and determination of the state’s No Wrong Door System and implementation of person-centered counseling.

Collaborative Efforts

  • HHS and TWC developed the Employment Crosswalk, an internal navigation tool for staff employees who support individuals to achieve their employment goals that may be receiving services through both agencies.
  • Collaborated with The Learning Community to develop ‘Texas Stories’, a project that tailors the principles of person-centered thinking training to specific populations to increase impact and applicability of PCP. Stories were created for people who may have experienced a brain and spinal cord injury and children who are being supported by Child Protective Services.

HHS continues its practice of tracking trends of PCP initiatives and best practices at an agency, state, and national level to inform future efforts in advancing person-centered thinking, planning and practices.

Direct Service Workforce Development Taskforce

The Direct Service Workforce Development (DWS) Taskforce meets a long-term goal in HHSC's Community Attendant Workforce Development Strategic Plan (PDF), which was required by Article II of the 2020-2021 General Appropriations Act passed by the 86th Legislature in 2019 (Rider 157). Commonly referred to as the Rider 157 plan, it contains strategies and data relating to recruiting, retaining and ensuring adequate access to community attendant services. It also includes information about the community attendant workforce in Texas, feedback collected from stakeholders, and HHSC's long-term goals and recommendations to address challenges faced by people receiving or providing community attendant care.

The DSW Taskforce aims to explore long-term recruitment and retention (non-wage based) strategies within the community attendant, personal care attendant and direct service workforce. The taskforce's challenge is to continue the momentum around the valuable workforce and to not wait on wage compensation as the only solution.

Representation on the taskforce includes partners, such as people receiving attendant services and families working with attendants; people working as community attendants; community organizations and councils that represent people with disabilities; and local workforce development boards and state agencies.

The DSW Taskforce meets six times a year to discuss implementation efforts and obtain feedback on the strategic plan.

External Resources