Press Release
Date: March 25, 2011
CRSI/Miami Co. Board chosen for best practices study
By LINDA D. SMITH
Public Relations Director
Champaign Residential Services, Inc.
The Ohio Provider Resource Association (OPRA) has announced that Champaign Residential Services, Inc. (CRSI) and the Miami County Board of Developmental Disabilities have been chosen to participate as one of six teams in a study to determine the best practices of providers and county boards serving Ohioans with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The study is funded by a grant from the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD).
The goals of the project include; greater consistency of care statewide, role clarification among staff and enhanced involvement of individuals and families. “The response to participate in this important study was great,” said Mark Davis, executive director of OPRA. ‘We had a difficult time selecting from the quality providers and county boards (that applied).”
Says Lori Stanfa of the Ohio Association of County Boards, “We were overwhelmed by the responses…this speaks highly of the commitment to best practice in our field.”
The selection panel considered many factors when selecting each of the participants, including: relationships between all stakeholders, tenure of leadership, history of working through challenges, size of counties and providers, geographic diversity and service array offered, according to an OPRA press release.
Than Johnson, CEO of CRSI responded to the agency’s selection by saying, “We are honored to be selected for this “best practices” study and to represent the nearly three thousand providers across the state. We are also honored to work with the Miami County Board on this project as we had numerous requests from other county boards to partner with them.”
“The outcome of this grant is to provide consistent services to citizens with disabilities in areas such as program development, service coordination, quality assurance and customer satisfaction. CRSI is one of the few agencies statewide that has integrated quality assurance and customer satisfaction/advocacy departments into its daily operation”, said Johnson.
Pictured: Lisa Rice (L) a consumer of CRSI services, visits with John Hannah, consumer advocate. John is a consumer of services as well a full-time employee at CRSI. In addition to advocacy work, he conducts customer satisfaction surveys for the agency, a unique program that has been studied by other providers.