Presently, developmental disability service systems serve over 500,000 people with developmental disabilities nationally. Yet, most states have service wait lists and face significant budget shortfalls. Demand for developmental disability services is going up, while state budgets for such services can’t seem to keep pace. The result is growing wait lists for serivices and a stressed service systems.

Policy-makers need to make the dollars that are available go as far as they can. They want the service system to effective, but also efficient and fair for all. One question that policy makers often ask concerns the amount of money service recipients should be allocated to pay for the services they need.

In response, SAGE Resources, at the Human Services Research Institute, provides specialty consultation services to policy makers interested in establishing personal-centered budget allocations for people with developmental disabilities.

Our work centers on assessing individual support needs in a systematic fashion to set personal budgets that reflect the assessed levels of need and that conform to the level of funding available. We seek to assure that individuals are allocated the level of resources that they need, no more and no less.

In addition, we seek to assure that personal budgets and the reimbursement rates paid to service providers are in alignment. It is important that service rates should be fair and sufficient to meet the needs of individuals.

The development of person-centered budget allocations that are tied to systematic assessments of need provides a valuable tool to policy makers for improving services and making service systems more efficient. Person-centered budgets can also be used to promote other policy goals, such as helping individuals to have more authority over the services they receive and to live “self-directed” lives, and to encourage provider networks to become more agile and responsive to individual service needs.