Questions families and coordinators ask

Use the referral form or call (301) 996-0992.

The form deliberately asks only for your contact details, the service you are interested in, the county and the funding source. It does not ask for client names, dates of birth or diagnoses — that information should not travel by web form or plain email. We collect it securely by phone once we are in touch.

We respond within one business day. Coordinators of Community Services, case managers, hospital discharge planners, families and self-advocates are all welcome to start a referral.

1. Within one business day — we acknowledge your referral and make contact.
2. Conversation — with the person, their family and their Coordinator of Community Services.
3. Review — the current person-centered plan, health needs and any nursing requirements.
4. Visit — where residential support is being considered, everyone sees the home before anyone commits.
5. A straight answer — whether we can meet the person’s needs, and when we could start.

If we are not the right provider, we will tell you, and help you look elsewhere. Placing someone badly serves no one.

Yes — and we encourage it.

No family should agree to a residential placement on the strength of a website or a brochure. We arrange visits so the person considering the move and their family can see the house, meet the staff on duty, and meet the people already living there.

Placements work when everyone has actually met. They fail when they were arranged on paper.

Eligibility is determined by the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration, not by providers. You apply through your DDA Regional Office — Prince George’s County is served by the Southern Maryland Regional Office.

Once eligibility is established, you are assigned a Coordinator of Community Services (CCS), who helps you choose providers and build a person-centered plan.

You do not have to wait until that is finished to talk to us. Call (301) 996-0992 at any point and we will tell you honestly what the next step is, even if you are nowhere near choosing a provider yet.

Maryland DDA runs several waiver programs. The three most relevant here are the Community Pathways Waiver, the Family Supports Waiver and the Community Supports Waiver.

• Community Living is generally funded through Community Pathways.
• Personal Supports may be authorized under any of the three, depending on eligibility and the person’s budget.
• Nursing Support Services is usually added alongside another service.

Your Coordinator of Community Services can confirm which waiver applies and what your annual budget covers. If you are unsure who your CCS is, we can help you find out.

We accept private pay for Personal Supports and Transportation. That matters because DDA waiting periods can be long, and going without support in the meantime is often what turns a manageable situation into a crisis.

Call us to talk it through. We will be straight with you about cost and about whether private pay actually makes sense for your circumstances — sometimes it does not, and we will say so.

Often, yes — and the assessment will be done by someone qualified to make the call.

Our Executive Director is a Registered Nurse, Delegating Nurse and HRST Rater with over twenty years of emergency and critical care experience. Our Nursing Support Services provide RN assessment, nursing care plans, medication delegation and chronic disease management.

Referrals involving seizure protocols, diabetes, dysphagia or similar needs get assessed on their merits rather than declined by default. Where we cannot safely support someone, we will tell you that directly and explain why.

Medication is administered by staff certified through Maryland’s Medication Technician Training Program (MTTP) and delegated by our Registered Nurse in line with Maryland Board of Nursing requirements.

Every administration is documented. Medication administration records are audited. Our delegating nurse provides ongoing supervision — not a periodic visit that signs off on paperwork after the fact.

We are based at 15812 Kerr Rd, Laurel, MD 20707 and serve Prince George’s County and surrounding Maryland counties, including Howard, Anne Arundel, Montgomery and Baltimore County.

If you are just outside that, call anyway. We would rather give you a straight answer than have you assume we cannot help.

It means the person decides, and the plan follows.

• Real choice and control over daily routine, where they live and who supports them
• Services that adjust as goals change, not only at a fixed review date
• Family involved to the degree the person wants them involved
• Dignity of risk — the right to make choices others might not make

In practice: we ask what someone wants their week to look like before we describe what our program offers. Our mission commits us to the protection of each individual’s natural human right to self-determination, and that is meant literally.

Every Direct Support Professional completes background checks before working with anyone we support.

Training covers supporting people with developmental disabilities, CPR and First Aid, and condition-specific training delivered by the Registered Nurse who wrote that person’s care plan — not generic modules disconnected from the people in the house.

Staff administering medication are MTTP-certified and delegated by our nurse. Drivers hold current CPR and First Aid certification.

Our residential homes are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an on-call supervisor and delegating nurse reachable outside business hours.

For general inquiries and new referrals, call (301) 996-0992 or (301) 928-8242 during business hours, or use the referral form at any time — we respond within one business day.

In a medical emergency, call 911.