May 1s, 2025

From Twogether Consulting!

Hello Everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well. May is Mental Health Awareness month.  We have many individuals in our IDD programs who have co-occurring IDD & MH diagnoses.  Please feel free to contact us if we can help with finding resources for your individuals.  Twogether Consulting plans on hosting a webinar for nurses this month that focuses on care planning ideas centered around common mental health diagnoses in the IDD population, towards the end of the month, so be looking for the training to be posted very soon on our website calendars.

You still have time to sign up for our free resource webinar that is right around the corner.  We invite you all to register to attend our next Free Provider & Family Resources Webinar we will be hosting May 6th, 2025 from noon to 1pm.  Here is the link:  “Snapshot of IDD Issues In The Current Legislative Session”

Twogether Consulting is hosting the Texas State Chapter of AAIDD (American Association on  Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities).  Our presenters are: Dion White, board member of Texas State Chapter of AAIDD and CEO of “Center For Life Resources” in Brownwood, Tx and Carey Amthor,  the president of Texas State Chapter of AAIDD and Chief Program Officer at “Friends For Life” in Waco, Texas.  Carey will be sharing some of the highlights of last year’s convention and changes they will be making for this year’s Texas Chapter convention will be in Corpus Christi this coming September 30th-Oct. 3rd, 2025. (Save the date). Carey will also be discussing some of the advantages of being a member of AAIDD.  Dion will be summarizing issues concerning IDD services and bills that were brought before the 89th legislature session and the current status as of May 6th, most importantly the budget outcome for direct support staff in some of our IDD programs in Texas.

Join us for our live 2-day Case Management training sessions in Dallas.  Dallas Metro Care will be our host for this training on May 20th & 21st, 2025.  Office Location: 1881 Sylvan Ave. (Ste. 150) Dallas, Tx.  Seating is limited, so please contact Megan Jones as soon as possible: meghanjones.tx@gmail.com  if you want to sign up. You can ask Meghan for an invoice or use this “Quick Pay Button” to purchase this 2-day live training.  $275/person for both days.  

We are pleased to announce that Rachel Hopkins from Molina Healthcare will be presenting during the “dessert break” on day 1.  She will be discussing  STAR+PLUS and how Molina (MCO) can work together with providers to support their members.  FYI-Rachel is also a certified person-centered trainer, so she might be a good resource for providers. 

Brittney Russo from Core-VA Solutions will be with us on day 2 of our Dallas training to provide another resource for providers in Texas. Core-VA Solutions can provides a variety of helpful virtual assistant services to our IDD providers and other health care program.  They can do Medicaid billing, provide off-site assistance to nursing staff, provide QA for programs using electronic health records systems the provider may have in place, appointment tracking and scheduling, onboarding New Hires and many other HR functions, just to make a few of the services they offer. 

For more Topics, please see the calendars posted on the website.. www.twogetherconsulting.com

We do have a variety of pre-recorded webinar trainings for program managers, case managers and nurses and direct care,  so feel free to email us at info@twogetherconsulting.com to inquire. Let us know what areas of training you would like, to help us plan future sessions.

Here are just a few of the recent pre-recorded webinar trainings available for purchase:  “Admission, Post-Admission & Other Follow-Up Requirements-HCS Program”, ICAPs/LON’s/IDRC’s-ICF Program” (Also have for HCS program), “Development of The Comprehensive Nursing Assessment & Nursing Service Plan-HCS or ICF”, “Best Practices For HCS Providers: How To Remain In Compliance With TAC Ch 565”, “Role & Responsbilities of The Q”,  “Surrogate Decision Making Process, Rights Restrictions & Immediate Jeopardy-ICF Program”, “Licensed ISS Providers: What You Really Need To Know.”, We also have a ore-recorded 5 part Care Coordination/Case Management series as well for the HCS program. All of these sessions and many more come with handouts as well as the link to the pre-recorded session

Please see our “Updates” section of the website for the latest news for IDD providers.

 Please feel free to e-mail us or contact Meghan Jones to schedule an appointment for consultation.  We have consultants available to provide consultation for HCS, TxHmL, ICF, (some CLASS as well) and we also provide some consultation for AMH-HCBS and YES Waiver.  Please contact us directly for your care coordination, QIDP, direct care and nursing needs or training at info@twogetherconsulting.com or you may contact our assistant Meghan Jones at meghanjones.tx@gmail.com
We are happy to say that we will continue to provide whatever assistance we can with questions you may have, especially concerning HCS/TxHmL Care Coordination, Nursing, or general survey requirements from LTCR department in these programs.  We continue to assist those working with the ICF/IID program as well. We are currently providing both on-site in-person training at this time as well as in-person live training that is open to all providers.
FYI-We do still provide “mentoring” assistance for program managers, case managers, and especially for nurses.  We continue to provide nursing trainings and we can refer you out to our partner RN consultants, Nursing Innovations, who provide IDD nursing consultation, mentoring and/or training for HCS, TxHmL and ICF.  If you have new staff or nurses who need training quicker than classes posted on the calendar, please let me know and we do offer some of our previously recorded sessions for a low cost which includes the handouts.   We are happy to schedule one-on-one training sessions and mentoring with one of our consultants.  We can also refer you to another resource, if more appropriate.  Twogether Consulting also continues to provide assistance with applying to become an HCS/TxHmL waiver provider and we can assist with applying to become an AMH-HCBS or YES Waiver provider.
For HCS Providers who want to purchase specific services and/or specific forms we have on our website, may go to the following link “purchase services” page. If you are having issues downloading forms, please feel free to contact us at info@twogetherconsulting.com and I will be happy to send them to you.
Thank you,
Julie Blacklock/ Owner & IDD Waiver Consultant