Accreditation

The Accreditation team was created in 2012 to support DDA in becoming the first state network accredited by the Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL), which is an internationally recognized organization whose mission and values focus on quality of life, person-centered supports, dignity, respect, and community for all people.

CQL utilizes several tools to determine if accreditation is appropriate for organizations and networks. The tools utilized by CQL are 1) the Basic Assurances (BA) which are a set of 10 Factors that focus on topics such as Respect, Rights, Safety, Staff, PFH, etc.) and 2) the Personal Outcome Measures (POMs), a list of 21 outcomes important to all people such as being safe, PFH, having choices and rights, etc. The Accreditation team goes through an intense certification process with CQL in order to complete Basic Assurances (BA) reviews with organizations, POM interviews with people and children supported in the DDA and TEIS provider network, and to facilitate POM Training Workshops to teach others how to utilize the POM tool. The POM interviews are used to promote person-centered planning, as well as evaluate person-centered service delivery at provider, regional, and statewide levels. Training in Personal Outcome Measures® is available to all stakeholders in the provider network. It is a 4-day in-depth training designed to further promote DDA’s commitment to a person-centered approach to supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The accreditation team inputs the data from their completed POM interviews and BA reviews into CQL’s PORTAL database and analyzes regionally and statewide at least monthly to monitor progress in service delivery. The Accreditation team also works with Self-Advocates who help educate staff and their peers about rights, speaking up for themselves and others, etc. The Accreditation team supports the Self-Advocates in scheduling/ coordinating these educational opportunities, identifying opportunities for the Self-Advocates to grow in their own knowledge, such as councils and committees, and providing coaching to them as needed.