Specialized Support Services
Easterseals Midwest's Specialized Support Services are designed to address the urgent needs of people with disabilities and complex healthcare needs including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs. They focus on holistic, whole-person, trauma-informed care that supports individuals through immediate challenges and onto a path of increased independence, long-term wellness, and stability.
What do Specialized Support Services do?
Specialized Support Services aims to provide individuals with disabilities and behavioral health needs who are currently residing in or at risk of being placed in institutions, jails, hospitals, and homeless shelters the option to have a home where they can develop increased independence and a sense of community through whole-person care. Through strategic collaborations and innovative service delivery, Specialized Support Services establish a continuum of care that is both accessible and effective, ensuring that individuals most at risk of institutionalization receive the support they need to navigate challenges successfully.
Specialized Support Services offer:
- A person-centered approach that meets people at the unique starting point of their journey.
- Holistic care that integrates physical, mental, and behavioral health to foster overall wellness.
- Comprehensive clinical services offering stabilization and treatment, grounded in strengths-based and trauma-informed practices.
- Customized, intensive skill training designed to empower individuals in building a solid foundation for success.
- Tiered support systems tailored to address each individual's challenges and needs.
- Seamless transitions that minimize disruptions and enhance continuity of care for participants.
Why were Specialized Support Services created?
People with both intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health concerns have historically been relegated to institutions. In 2014, the movement to deinstitutionalize individuals with disabilities culminated in the Home and Community-Based Settings rule, ensuring that all individuals have a reasonable opportunity to remain members of their community by bringing support and services to them. However, the infrastructure to adequately support individuals with complex behavioral health concerns and disabilities has never been fully developed or widely accessible to those who need it.
Rather than receiving the appropriate level of care, individuals with complex needs remain boarded in inappropriate settings such as hospitals, jails, or living unhoused.
Easterseals' Specialized Support Services aims to offer stable, consistent, expert care for vulnerable individuals. It is designed to empower people throughout life, meeting them where they are today and supporting them in getting to where they want to be tomorrow.
