NIDILRR awards $600K contract to the Partnership

Three-year grant is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through a field-initiated NIDILRR program.

Headshots of the NIDILRR principal investigator and the four co-principal investigators. — Project team members include (from left) Parthy Dinora, Ph.D., principal investigator; and co-investigators Michael Broda, Ph.D.; Matthew Bogenschutz, Ph.D.; Seb M. Prohn, Ph.D.; and Sarah Lineberry, graduate student in the School of Social Work. (Courtesy photos)

Project team members include (from left) Parthy Dinora, Ph.D., principal investigator; and co-investigators Michael Broda, Ph.D.; Matthew Bogenschutz, Ph.D.; Seb M. Prohn, Ph.D.; and Sarah Lineberry, graduate student in the School of Social Work. (Courtesy photos)

The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has awarded a new three-year $600,000 grant to the Partnership for People with Disabilities, a center within the VCU School of Education.

The mission of the Partnership is to partner with people with disabilities and others to build communities where all people can live, learn, work and play together. The grant, which will measure and track over time personal and health outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who use Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS), is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through a field-initiated NIDILRR program.

Field-initiated programs develop methods, procedures and technology that integrate individuals with disabilities into society, including employment, independent living, and economic and social self-sufficiency.

Over 860,000 people in the United States use Medicaid IDD HBCS with estimated expenditures totaling $38.71 billion. “This grant is intended to serve as a national model for how to merge state-based administrative datasets and use advanced analytic methods to make more informed decisions about investments in IDD services and public policy that support the best outcomes,” said Parthy Dinora, Ph.D., interim executive director of the Partnership and associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Special Education.

This is the second NIDILRR field-initiated grant that the Partnership has received to explore relationships between support needs, costs, and outcomes for people with IDD who use Medicaid services.

Dinora is the principal investigator of the project. Co-investigators include:

Seb M. Prohn, Ph.D., senior research evaluation specialist with the Partnership;
Michael Broda, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Foundations of Education;
Matthew Bogenschutz, Ph.D., associate professor in the VCU School of Social Work; and
Sarah Lineberry, graduate student in the School of Social Work.

NIDILRR is a U.S. governmental agency that provides leadership and support for a comprehensive program of research related to the rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities.