Lynn Macdonald Email and Phone Number

It is one of the most interesting roles. we constantly negotiate the tension between safety and self-determination. We have duties to the person and to the courts. We help with housing ( group Homes), getting medical care, long-term supports and services, apply or monitoring public benefits, make sure yearly taxes are done, get them mental health services if needed, go to doctors appointments if needed, help with care comfort, and work programs etc. There are many players in a persons life I have to work with which requires conflict resolution at times.

The long-term outcomes and effects of participant-directed home and community-based personal care service programs are currently unknown. Arkansas’ IndependentChoices participant-directed program that began under the Cash & Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation (CCDE) may provide the opportunity to examine these long-term outcomes. Initially started in Arkansas, Florida, and New Jersey between 1998 and 2000, the CCDE used a randomized controlled trial to compare agency-based personal care services with state-based participant-directed programs that gave participants the opportunity to select and hire personal care workers of their own choosing, receive financial payments, and make personal health care budgetary decisions with the assistance of financial counselors, if needed (Brown et al., 2007). Besides doing telephone interviews for research, I also error check transcriptions of the telephone interviews and member check for coding of the research.

We aim to strengthen Participant Direction at the local, state and national levels. We are the voice that includes all ages and disabilities.