AJE wants families to be aware of changes at DC Department on Disability Services (DDS) that might impact them, or their loved ones.
On November 1, 2024, the Director of the DC Department on Disability Services (DDS) approved the revised Incident Management and Enforcement Policy (2024-DDS-POL02) and Procedure (2024-DDS-PRO-02). These updates took effect on January 1, 2025, replacing several older policies and procedures from 2013 and 2016.
Key Highlights of the Revised Policy and Procedure
Please review the attached Policy and Procedure for complete details. Below are some of the key changes:
- Mandatory Reporting: Enhanced language for mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
- COVID-19 Reporting: Limited to positive tests for supported persons (RI) or hospitalizations for COVID-19 treatment (SRI).
- Medical and Behavioral Reporting: Emergency Room/Urgent Care visits (RI) and unplanned inpatient hospitalizations (SRI) are now categorized separately for medical and behavioral cases.
- Medical Sedation: One-time use of medical sedation no longer requires a Behavioral Support Plan (BSP) but will now be a reportable incident (RI).
- Physical Restraint: Any use of physical restraint, regardless of injury or alignment with a BSP, is now classified as an SRI to better track its usage.
- Detailed Abuse and Neglect Categories: Abuse is now divided into Emotional/Psychological, Physical, and Sexual Abuse. Neglect includes Environmental Neglect, Inadequate Staffing, Medical Neglect, Nutritional Neglect, Staff Incompetence, and Other.
- Notification Consistency: Incident notifications will align with Supported Decision-Making Agreements, where applicable.
- Reinstatement Process: A formal process is introduced for considering reinstatement of provider staff placed in no-contact status after an investigation.
Training and Information Sessions
As part of the implementation of the revised Incident Management and Enforcement Policy and Procedure DDS will provide training to internal staff, provider staff designated as incident management coordinators (IMC), and information sessions. The training and information sessions will be held at the IMC meetings, internal DDS training community and provider forums, and other stakeholder meetings to include the Community and Provider forums, Family Support Council, and ProjectAction! meetings. These will occur prior to January 1, 2025, and resources used will be available for review and sharing.
DDS thanks the Home and Community Based Services Advisory Committee for reviewing and providing feedback on these documents.
If you have questions about this transmittal, please contact Supervisory Investigator, Greg Coffman, at greg.coffman@dc.gov or 202.730.1783 or Jose Castrillo, Supervisory Quality Improvement Specialist, at jose.castrillo@dc.gov or 202.497.5045
IMEU Procedure Final, 11.1.2024
Transmittal 24-04_ Incident Management and Enforcement (IMEU)
IMEU Procedure Final, 11.1.2024
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