QUALITY OF LIFE INITIATIVE

What is the Quality of Life Initiative?

    The state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) funds the PAL Quality of Life Initiative’s (QLI) ongoing efforts to conduct an annual statewide assessment of services for people with disabilities and their families. The PAL QLI project is also part of the Core Indicators Project (CIP), coordinated by the Human Services Research Institute (HSRI), a national effort in which Rhode Island participates for comparison with approximately 22 other participating states.

    The main purpose of the QLI project is to gather information from Rhode Islanders with disabilities, who receive funding from DDD, on how they are doing, the quality of their services and to hear their dreams. Our QLI visitors meet with 400 people selected each year & complete a summary of their findings. Our visit questions focus on Quality of Life indicators, or Core Indicators, which are areas that assess the level of satisfaction we all have with our lives, such as home, work, relationships, safety, choice, Human Rights, and belonging to one’s community. Often times, during the course of a meeting, people express challenges they are encountering. The visitor includes these findings in the summary sheet, which is shared with the person, anyone the person requests, the person’s DDD social worker and their agency service providers. The intent is to provide feedback to a person’s support team in order to foster conversations around addressing their challenges and dreams.

    Also, at times during a visit, a person or family member requests or suggests the need for additional resources (e.g., human rights information in alternative formats, respite information). We provide resources to the individuals visited, families and the agencies that support them.

    Once the data is collected, it is inputted into an ever-growing database. Every three years, PAL will generate a comparison report to share with all stakeholders (www.pal-ri.org). Data from the visits is also sent to the national project where each year the data is analyzed in comparison with the other participating states and a report is generated (www.hsri.org). Be assured that no names of participants are included in these comparison reports.

    The PAL visit provides an opportunity for people to share their individual experiences, dreams and hopes for the future. By listening to each person visited, we better understand how people with disabilities & their families are thinking about their lives, the supports they receive and the opportunities they have to live a satisfying life.