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Join the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities for Family Connection Forum. Register here for our upcoming events.

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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.

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People lead whole lives made up of specific, connected, and integrated life domains that are important to a good quality of life. Life domains are the different aspects and experiences of life that we all consider as we age and grow.

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DODD’s Regional Teams consist of

subject matter experts within the

DODD system to support people with

developmental disabilities, families,

guardians, providers, and county

boards of developmental disabilities.

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A direct support professional or DSP. A DSP can be an independent provider or an employee of an agency that you have selected to support you. This document aims to help you get the information you want when selecting a provider to support you with the services you need.

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Ohio's developmental disabilities home and community-based waiver system is almost twenty years old. The system needs to be updated to better meet the needs of people with developmental disabilities and their families. To achieve this, the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) is working with partners on the Waiver Redesign Initiative.

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Identify the supports you are using now, and think about other supports that might be helpful. The right supports can help ensure your quality of life. Some supports are centered around relationships, technology, or personal strengths and assets.

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Your Rights in Ohio’s DD System & Beyond

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Your Rights in Ohio’s DD System & Beyond

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Guiding Voices in County Board Governance

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Guiding Voices in County Board Governance

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Ohioans with developmental disabilities should have every opportunity to be a part of their community and engage in decisions that impact their lives. DODD introduced and improved language in Ohio law section 5126.021 to ensure that at least one person with a developmental disability is appointed to each county board of DD. The Guiding Voices in County Board Governance is a guide for people interested in being a member of their local county board of developmental disabilities.

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Join DODD's Quality and Innovation Office teams for the 2024 Innovation Series centered on, "A Day in the Life: Amplifying Voices, Building a More Inclusive Tomorrow." The series sessions will offer practical strategies on:

Integrated Support

Person-Centered Outcomes

Community Building

Relationships

Employment Opportunities

The virtual series will build toward an in-person summit on May 29 in Central Ohio honoring the stories - including yours - that inspire action. This year expands from the  2023 Innovation Series which focused on enriching your network and the power of relationships. The Quality and Innovation team at DODD is partnering with OSDA, We Thrive Together - Advocacy Wednesday, and OCALI to offer a learning opportunity with real life examples, networking, and practical strategies and motivation to move your ah-ha moments into action.
Registration - Coming Soon!

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The Community Life Guide will help you learn how to be your best and how to stay safe while you work, live, and explore your community.

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Join us for the next Disability Connect meeting! This is a time for people living with disabilities to share their experiences and engage in conversation with DODD leadership, including the Director. Register Here

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Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities

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OhioISP Spotlight - History of the OhioISP

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DODD’s Major Unusual Incident and Registry Unit provides oversight to county boards of developmental disabilities and providers to help ensure the health and welfare of people with disabilities who receive services.

Unusual incidents and major unusual incidents are reported and tracked across Ohio to identify patterns and trends and determine causes and contributing factors necessary for prevention planning. UIs and MUIs each have required reporting periods and reporting methods.

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Understanding Major Unusual Incidents: What Families Need to Know

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Understanding Major Unusual Incidents: What Families Need to Know

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The MUI unit strives to work cooperatively with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, families, county boards, and providers to protect Ohioans, highlighting that all incidents are important and investigated.

Unusual incidents (UIs) are investigated by providers, and major unusual incidents (MUIs) are investigated by county boards of developmental disabilities or developmental center investigators.

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2024 Recognizing and Responding to Medical Emergencies Alert

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2024 Recognizing and Responding to Medical Emergencies Alert

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Mission: To expand opportunities for Ohioans to receive trauma-informed interventions by enhancing efforts for practitioners, facilities, and agencies to become competent in trauma-informed practices

Ohio's Trauma-Informed Care Initiative

Since Summer of 2013, an interagency workgroup comprised of leaders from Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services (MHAS) and Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) has been meeting to formulate plans to expand TIC across the state. A portion of the "Strong Families, Safe Communities" funds from the Governor's Office have been earmarked for this purpose. The National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC)/SAMHSA and Ohio Center for Innovative Practices (CIP) have also consulted formally, and Additional conversations and advice from Ohio Hospital Association, OACBHA, Ohio Council, PCSAO, and many others.

What is trauma?

Individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or a set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual's functioning and physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well being.

TIC Trainings
Recognizing & Responding to Trauma​Impact of Trauma on Individuals with DD Building Resilience: 4 Tools to Assist with Those We Serve & Ourselves Becoming a Trauma-Informed Agency
The Three E's of Trauma

Events

The focus on events puts the cause of trauma on the environment, not in a defect of the person. This underlies the basic principle of the trauma-informed approach. Events can be a single event, a series of events, or chronic conditions. People may experience an event directly, witness an event, or feel threatened hearing about an event that affects someone they know.

There is a wide range of events that could potentially create trauma, including violence, abuse, terrorism, forced displacement, natural disaster, or death of a loved one.

Experiences

A person's experience of trauma may be profoundly affected by when, how, where, and how often it occurs. Trauma can result from a single event or multiple traumatic events over time.

The focus on experience highlights the fact that not every person experiences the same events as traumatic.

Experiences that produce trauma include

Effects

Trauma often has lasting and adverse effects on a person's functioning, as well as their mental, physical, social, and emotional well-being. Trauma can result in

confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, dissociation, and chronic or recurrent physical pain, such as headaches or stomachaches,

difficulty developing healthy attachments and relationships and difficulty identifying, expressing, and managing emotions,

impairment of brain and nervous system development,

impairment of immune system response,

and engagement in risky behaviors, such as smoking, substance abuse, self-harm, unsafe sexual practices, and diet and exercise habits that lead to obesity.

TIC Principles

What is trauma-informed?

A program, organization or system that is trauma-informed

Realizes the widespread prevalence and impact of trauma

Understands potential paths for healing

Recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma and how trauma affects all people in the organization, including:

Patients

Staff

Others involved with the system

Responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into practices, policies, procedures, and environment

Core Principles

Safety

Trustworthiness and transparency

Peer support and mutual self-help

Collaboration and mutuality

Empowerment, voice, and choice

Consideration of cultural, historical, and gender issues

Outcomes

Improved quality of care and impact of care

Improved safety for patients and staff

Decreased utilization of seclusion and restraint

Fewer no-shows

Improved patient engagement

Improved patient satisfaction

Improved staff satisfaction

Decreased "burnout" and staff turnover

Trauma in Adults: Mental Health

61% of men and 51% of women with a mental health issue reported experiencing at least one trauma in their lifetime with these experiences listed as the most common:

witnessing a trauma,

being involved in a natural disaster,

and experiencing a life-threatening accident.

Trauma in Children

According to a study in 2015 by the National Council for Behavioral Health,

children with histories of traumatic experiences are twice as likely to have chronic health conditions;

children with traumatic experiences are 2.5 times more likely to have repeated a grade in school;

and exposure to violence in the first years of childhood deprives children of as much as 10% of their potential IQ.

In recent years, research, training, and information have helped build awareness about the impact of trauma on the lives of children. This awareness has resulted in a new understanding about the importance of addressing existing trauma exposure and preventing re-traumatization.

The leadership in federal, state, and local child-serving systems, including child welfare, mental health, juvenile justice, education, primary care, Medicaid, and others, has recognized the urgency of changing the fundamental question from "What's wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?"

The challenge now is to ensure this paradigm shift permeates all levels of child-serving systems and is disseminated to everyone who interacts with the lives of children, from policymakers at the state level to the receptionist in the local provider agency.

Trauma in People with Developmental Disabilities

According to a 2014 study by Envision,

one out of every three children and adults with developmental disabilities will experience abuse in their lifetime,

and more than 90% of the time, abuse is inflicted by a person charged with protecting and supporting them.

Characteristics that influence rates of trauma in the developmental disabilities population:

people with developmental disabilities may have been taught to comply with authority figures and do as they are told without question,

they are dependent on caregivers for a longer period of time,

they are sometimes impaired in their ability to communicate or in their mobility,

people with developmental disabilities who experience cognitive or processing delays may not understand what is happening in abusive or exploitive situations,

and sometimes the signs of abuse are attributed to the person's disability and ignored.

Shift in Thinking

As trauma symptoms are normalized, feelings of shame and self-blame are reduced or eliminated. Symptoms are viewed as the body's attempt to re-establish balance to the nervous system.

Instead of "What's wrong with you?" ask "What happened to you?"

Instead of "What is your diagnosis?" try "What is your story? What brought you here?"

Instead of "What are your symptoms?" ask "How have you coped and adapted?"

Instead of "How can I best help or treat you?" ask "How can we work together to figure out what helps?"

Instead of "Here is what you need to work on ...." ask "How can I support changes in your behavior that will benefit you?"

Shift in Thinking: Coping Mechanisms

Survival Response: Fight

Behavior: Struggling to regain or hold on to power, especially when feeling coerced

Labeled by the system as non-compliant, in denial, combative, challenges authority, or treatment resistant

Survival Response: Flight

Behavior: Giving in to whoever or whatever is in a position of power

Labeled by the system as passive, cannot be helped, or using the system

Survival Response: Freeze

Behavior: Disengaging completely, keeping to oneself, leaving services, abandoning housing

Labeled by the system as chronic or unmotivated

Shift in Thinking: Resiliency

Resiliency is an inner capacity that when nurtured, facilitated, and supported by others empowers children, young people, and families to meet life's challenges with a sense of self-determination, mastery, hope, and well-being.

Components of Resiliency: The Four C's

The four C's of resiliency are control, connection, competency, and contribution.

The Trauma-Informed Approach: The Four R's

Putting it All Together

Ask: "What happened to you?"

Then, support resiliency with four statements.

Team members can also

show genuine concern and be sensitive to physical or intellectual barriers, gender, and cultural issues.

understand that troubling behaviors that might seem uncomfortable likely helped the person cope and survive under extreme circumstances. Seek to understand their experiences and identify a path to healing.

help link the person with trauma-responsive services and ensure continuity of care between organizations and across systems.

assume that every young person has experienced trauma, even without knowing their personal history.

create a welcoming environment that promotes a feeling of safety and non-violence. Pay attention to physical space, tone of voice, loudness of music or side conversations, and eliminate anything that could be intimidating or anxiety producing.

be aware of personal space. Realize that some painful memories may be triggered by touching, hugging, behaving authoritatively, standing over the person, or blocking their exit.

recognize that certain practices such as seclusion and restraint may create trauma and trigger traumatic memories. Make a commitment to non-violence in words, actions, policy, and practices.

support meaningful power-sharing and decision-making.

use tools and approaches that help calm fear and anxiety as a preventative and healing method rather than engaging in confrontational approaches that focus on coercion or control of external behavior.

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Mission: To expand opportunities for Ohioans to receive trauma-informed interventions by enhancing efforts for practitioners, facilities, and agencies to become competent in trauma-informed practices Ohio's Trauma-Informed Care Initiative Since Summer of 2013, an interagency workgroup comprised of leaders from Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services (MHAS) and Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) has been meeting to formulate plans to expand TIC across the state.

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The Wellness Project is a collection of resources and practices to support and enhance your individual and organizational wellness and resilience. It includes a holistic system of wellness activities such as reading, listening, watching, cooking, connecting, moving, breathing, and resting. Watch this short introduction video and then enjoy exploring!

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DODD Podcasts

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Subscribe to DODD News and Announcements

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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. It is available for people using Individual Options, Level One, and SELF waivers.

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The Ohio Tech Ambassador Network | Welcome

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The Ohio Tech Ambassador Network program promotes Supportive Technology that enhances lives & independence for people with developmental disabilities.

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Preparing for youth with disabilities to assume adult roles as community members and workers should begin early in a young person's life and is effective when supported by a multi-agency team and meaningful services.
This is what the Ohio Employment First Transition Framework strives to create.
Watch the "Realizing Employment First for Youth: A Transition Framework" video for an overview of the Ohio Employment First Transition Framework.

Video: Ohio Employment First Transition Framework Overview

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Subscribe to DODD News and Announcements

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The Works4Me program aims to expand career opportunities for people with developmental disabilities and to help them see their potential for competitive integrated employment.

When you sign up for Works4Me, you can access extra support and services to help you explore careers and find competitive integrated employment.

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DODD Community Talks - Presentation 04152025

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There are many agencies and organizations that support people with disabilities to successful employment and community living. This tool provides an overview of agencies & how they can offer support.