May 22nd, 2024
Home and Community-based Services (HCS), Texas Home Living (TxHmL), Community Living Assistance and Support Services (CLASS), and Deaf Blind with Multiple Disabilities (DBMD) waiver programs will be replacing the form and handbook term “individual” with “person” in accordance with HHS branding guidelines.
HHS follows federal plain language guidance to help ensure all programs use language that makes communications easier for the public to read, understand and use the first time they see or hear it. The language needs to be standardized across all HHS handbooks.
To learn more about plain language and find more plain language word and phrase replacements, visit the HHS Brand Guide Plain Language Terms and Phrases webpage.
**Twogether Consulting encourages providers to begin switching to this terminology as well, on forms created by the provider for their facility. So when you update any forms, try to use the term “person”, if you are currently using “individual”, or an even older term “consumer”. Of course that may take some time, but now is the time to start!
