Ohio Guardianship and Alternatives Toolkit

  • Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities provides many trainings and resources on guardianship and alternatives to guardianship.

Disability Rights Ohio – Guardianship

  • Guardianship takes away a person’s ability to make choices about his or her life. There are other options which place fewer restrictions on a person with a disability that should be considered before deciding to appoint a guardian. This section provides information about guardianship and its alternatives.

Supported Decision Making Manual for Medical Professionals

  • The PRACTICAL Tool was originally created by the American Bar Association for attorneys to help them identify and support implementing decision-making options for persons with disabilities that are less restrictive than guardianship. Like attorneys, healthcare providers may find themselves involved with families and patients as they navigate similar issues, and also like attorneys, little has been done historically to prepare them for attending to the full breadth of decision making support options available. This manual begins with the PRACTICAL Tool, amended for use by healthcare providers, and then moves into a more detailed overview of patient-centered care (Part I) and other decision making supports that do not involve the removal of rights (Part II).

Ohio Network for Innovation

  • These resources are intended to help you learn about and navigate the world of Supported Decision-Making.  Some of these resources were created by ONI, but many of them were created by other organizations.

Supported Decision Making Network of Ohio: What is Supported Decision Making?

  • One-pager resource about what supported decision making is and why it is important.

Supported Decision Making: A Handbook for Supporters

  • This resource provides information on supported decision making for support people.

Supporting Decision Making: A Quick Reference Guide for Disability Support Workers

  • This resource provides information on supported decision making for disability support workers.

Disability Rights Ohio Self-Advocacy

  • Disability Rights Ohio provides a multitude of self-advocacy resources, from guardianship to voting!

THE SIX CORE ELEMENTS OF HEALTH CARE TRANSITION™ 3.0 – Supporting Youth and Young Adults Transitioning to Adult Healthcare from Pediatric Care

  • Got Transition created the Six Core Elements of Health Care Transition 3.0 for use by clinicians to assist youth and young adults as they transition to adult health care.

Sample Medical Summary and Emergency Care Plan

  • This medical summary and emergency care plan is a fillable tool to share with the individual, parents / caregivers, and other professionals.

Disability Rights Ohio Transition Services Planning

  • The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) mandates transition services planning for students with disabilities who are 16 years of age. In Ohio, schools must begin transition planning when the student turns 14. Transition services are systematic, purposeful, actions to prepare and support students in their transition from the school community to adult community living. Services often include direction in the areas of personal and social skills, daily living skills, and occupational and vocational skills. The transition plan is specifically stated in the child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).

Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities – Remote Support Services

  • Remote Support allows an off-site direct service provider to monitor and respond to a person’s health, safety, and other needs using live communication, while offering the person more independence in their home.

    Remote Support uses two-way communication in real time, just like Skype or FaceTime, so a person can communicate with their providers when they need them. A person can choose supports like sensors that call for help if someone has fallen or cameras that help monitor who is visiting a person’s home.

    This service is always combined with Assistive Technology.

Nisonger Center Technology Project

  • The Technology Projects aim to promote and investigate technology solutions that enhance independence for people with developmental disabilities and related services.

Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority Waiver – Housing Choice Voucher

  • The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program provides housing assistance for very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled, allowing them to live in safe, quality affordable housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses or apartments in neighborhoods of their choice. Participants are free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and are not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects.

USDA Rural Development Multifamily Housing Programs

  • Multifamily Housing assists rural property owners through loans, loan guarantees, and grants that enable owners to develop and rehabilitate properties for low-income, elderly, and disabled individuals and families as well as domestic farm laborers.

Disability Rights Ohio Housing

  • Finding housing that is affordable, available, and accessible is often difficult for people with disabilities. There are many different programs that may be helpful to people seeking housing, as well as different options for having modifications done to a current home.

Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities Rental Assistance Program

  • The Rental Assistance Program (RAP) provides monthly rental assistance and one-time assistance for eligible people with developmental disabilities.

Disability Rights Ohio Advanced Directive

  • In Ohio, “advance directives” is the term used to describe three types of legal documents you can complete to express your wishes regarding your future health care: (1) a durable power of attorney for health care (POA), (2) a declaration for mental health treatment, and (3) a living will. An advance directive can be an important tool for you as a consumer of mental health and other disability services to guide your care should your attending physician determine that you lack capacity to make your own health care choices.

Disability Rights Ohio Employment Self-Advocacy

  • Many people with disabilities want to work, but face barriers: discrimination, inaccessible work places, insufficient adaptive technologies, inflexible job duties, unavailable services to prepare for work, and, if hired, loss of essential benefits and medical insurance that cannot be replaced by working incomes. Disability Rights Ohio offers self-advocacy assistance, information, publications, referrals, advice, negotiation, and when appropriate, advocacy and legal representation to assist people with disabilities to prepare for, to enter, and to remain in the work place.

Charting the LifeCourse Framework – English

  • The Charting the LifeCourse framework was created to help individuals and families of all abilities and all ages develop a vision for a good life, think about what they need to know and do, identify how to find or develop supports, and discover what it takes to live the lives they want to live. The framework is the keystone for supporting a community of learning that champions transformational change through knowledge exchange, capacity building, and collaborative engagement.

Family Resource Network of Ohio

  • The Family Resource Network of Ohio is here to help families by providing resources, tools, and trainings.

Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council Family Support

  • Family support resources.

Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities – #FamilyTalk

Ohio SIBS

  • Ohio SIBS is a grassroots organization of siblings of people with disabilities that came together in 2000 to acknowledge the sibling role in the life of a person with a disability. We support siblings throughout the lifespan by connecting them with resources and creating a community of siblings that support the disability community.

Ohio Parent to Parent Mentoring and Support Program

  • Ohio Parent to Parent (Ohio P2P) is a statewide parent support program. It matches parents, siblings, self-advocates, foster parents, grandparents, etc. who have a family member, of any age, with a disability or special health care need, with an experienced, trained, volunteer support parent. The support parent provides support on needs and issues related to parenting and providing care to a loved one with a disability or special healthcare need. Support is provided via email, phone, virtual communication (e.g. Skype, Zoom, etc.) and/or in-person.

Department of Developmental Disabilities – Variety of Toolkits

  • The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities has a very wide variety of resources and toolkits.