Family support services provide support to families who are providing care for a family member with a developmental disability.  These services are funded by the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities in an effort to enhance the lives of people with developmental disabilities who are living at home. The Family Support Council meets on the 3rd Wednesday of every month.  Meetings are open and parents are encouraged to attend.  For additional information call the Developmental Services Office at 581-3042. Not-for-profit agencies provide a variety of individualized services that help meet the needs of the individuals and their families.  Recreation programs, respite, service coordination, counseling, and family reimbursement may be some of the services available for your family. Funding for these services can be limited.  Placing your child’s name on a list with an agency early on may result in many worthwhile family support services in the future. To learn more about service availability, you should contact the Program Director at one of the appropriate agencies listed in this directory. SERVICE DEFINITIONS*: Behavior Management – Planned, systematic application of the methods and findings of behavior science with the intent of altering observable behaviors, including increasing, decreasing, extending, restricting, teaching, and maintaining behaviors. Case Management/Service Coordination - Regular contact with the individual, primary care giver and service providers to assist with the planning for and accessing of desired services and supports.  Services include assessment of service needs, service planning and coordination, linkage and referral, follow-up, monitoring, and advocacy. Counseling - Face-to-face, individual, group, or family counseling or therapy in a planned, structured session intended to help an individual or family gain insight, resolve problems, develop alternate behaviors or address other issues of concern.  This includes counseling provided over the telephone with individuals or with their families. Financial and Life Planning Assistance - Financial assistance services assist families in accessing necessary assistance from generic and OMRDD funding, benefits, entitlements, and other sources.  Life planning assistance services assist a family to develop a plan with input from the individual with a developmental disability and with assistance from professionals.  This assistance provides the family with some assurance about future life options available to the individual with a developmental disability and selection of these options.  Home Care (Homemaker) - Employment of a person in an individual’s place of residence to aid in carrying out housekeeping functions in order to assist the individual in reaching identified goals, offer assistance and relief to a caretaker or family member who, in turn, can spend more time working directly with the individual, or provide a temporary substitute for a caretaker or family member. Information/Referral/Outreach - Information and referral services provide information on programs and services for individuals and their families.  Linkages can be made to diagnostic, residential, facilitative, education, vocational, medical, and recreational services, and to entitlement programs such as Medicaid and SSI.  Includes activities undertaken to ensure the individual’s use of a service or acceptance in a program and may include accompanying the individual.  Outreach services identify unserved or underserved individuals with developmental disabilities or their families who are eligible to use all appropriate services offered through OMRDD generic and specialized services delivery systems.  Recreation (Day/Evening) - Social, recreational and leisure activities that are enjoyable and often include opportunities to interact with and participate as part of a community.  Recreation offers children and adults the chance to play, experience good times, and identify and pursue activities in which they are interested.  It promotes development of a side range of skills and helps create balance and well being. Recreation (Summer/Day Camp) - A planned program of social, recreational and leisure activities that are enjoyable and often include opportunities to interact with and participate with others.  Recreation promotes development of a wide range of skills and helps create balance and well being.  Respite (Day/Evening/Weekend) - These services provide the family with temporary relief from the care of a person with a developmental disability in order to permit the caregivers to be absent during the day or evening to conduct business, deal with an emergency, or pursue a leisure activity.  This service may be provided either in or out-of-home and encompasses many means of service delivery, including free-standing respite centers.  Respite (Overnight) - These services provide temporary room, board and supervision of an individual with a developmental disability in and out-of-home setting, or supervision in the natural home, when the family member or primary caregiver is absent or needs relief.  Training - Training and education activities offered to the parents, siblings and caregivers, designed to augment or improve their knowledge of, and ability to promote the development of, their family member, and to aid in their ability to care for their family member at home.  Training in activities of daily living which enable individuals to increase their level of independence and improve the quality of their lives.   Transportation - Provides an individual and/or family member with the proper mode of transportation to and from his/her residence and programs and services. Vacation/Sleep Away Camp - Vacation is a scheduled period of time away from the daily routine usually spent on recreational and leisure activities.  Camps, usually operated in the summer, provide for the physical and social needs of campers and offer recreation and leisure activities.   Other - At times a family or an individual may need a unique service which is not included in the group of services listed. ITEMS PURCHASED, RENTED OR LEASED* Special Adaptive Equipment - Any item, product or piece of equipment that can be used by persons with disabilities to maintain or improve their functional abilities.  Such equipment might include:  bathtub lifts, transfer boards, modified eating utensils, communication devices, adapted toys or accessible vans.  Includes assistive technology services to help a person know about, acquire and use the appropriate adaptive equipment:  e.g., demonstration, assessment, funding, training, maintenance, and repairs. Environmental Modification - Environmental modification service provides assistance to families with the removal of barriers that limit accessibility and remodeling to enhance the independent or assisted functioning of individuals with developmental disabilities within their home.  Such services include the installation of ramps, lifts or grab bars, widening of doorways, kitchen and bathroom cabinetwork, and counter or appliance changes (e.g., special sink handles). Supplies (can include) - Medication expenses such as cost of prescription and nonprescription substances that are necessary as a result of the individual’s disability.  Must have a receipt from the pharmacy.  (Note:  For those eligible, cost of prescription drugs is reimbursable through Medicaid.)  Continence products (e.g., diapers, wipes); products generally of a disposable nature, used to assist in caring for the individual, who, due to the disability, has a continence problem.  Examples include diapers, wipes, chucks, draw sheets, and other bed linens.  Must have a receipt of purchase.  Special clothing; the cost for extra clothing required for an individual with night-time incontinence, or for an individual whose garments wear out quickly due to abnormal movement patterns resulting from a disability.  Can include specially designed clothing for individuals with physical disabilities, and medically prescribed articles for which other funding is not available (e.g., orthopedic shoes, helmets for head protection).  Must have a receipt of purchase.  Special dietary needs; food and supplements costs for special diets prescribed by a physician.  The need for dietary supplements must be directly related to the individual’s disability and must not be reimbursable through other funding sources.  Must have a receipt of purchase.  Other - There are a number of supply items needed to properly maintain persons with disabilities but are too numerous and varied to categorize.  These items might include things such as batteries, program supplies, or other items reasonably related to the care of the family member with a disability.  Must have a receipt of purchase. *New York State OMRDD Family Support Services Annual Report – June 1997 Building Upon Success [Return to Top]