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.
For more information, email the HHSC ODSC. To find HHS services, click here.
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 Services Action Plan
- Disability Coordination Forums, including the monthly Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind Meeting and the monthly IDD Coordination Meeting
Disability Services Action Plan
In fiscal year 2020, HHS staff hosted seven disability listening sessions across the state to gain insight from clients, providers and advocates about their experiences and challenges navigating HHS, as well as opportunities to improve.
Through the feedback as well as research and information from several other agency reports, HHS identified achievable opportunities to improve agency coordination to make it easier for individuals, families and providers to navigate the HHS system for disability services. The Disability Services Action Plan (PDF) lists 27 recommendations across four initiatives that were found to be achievable within one to five fiscal years. The initiatives include:
- Training and support
- Communication
- Policy and rules
- System redesign
Phase two of the disability services action plan continues, and HHS is evaluating each of the 27 recommendations to determine when, over the next five years, implementation will occur. Each recommendation slated for implementation will have to meet the following criteria:
- Have a variety of ongoing projects across the disability continuum and across disability communities.
- Be generally feasible.
- Balance internal resources, such as fiscal impact and staff bandwidth.
When available, HHS will publish status reports of each implemented project on this webpage.