Texas Administrative Code › Title 40 - SOCIAL SERVICES AND ASSISTANCE › Part 1 - DEPARTMENT OF AGING AND DISABILITY SERVICES › Chapter 72 - MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH OTHER STATE AGENCIES › Subchapter B - MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING CONCERNING COORDINATION OF SERVICES TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES › Section 72.204 - Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TXMHMR)

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) Mission. The mission of the Texas
				  Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TXMHMR) is to offer an
				  array of services which respond to the needs of people with mental illness and
				  mental retardation and which enable them to make choices that result in lives
				  of dignity and increased independence. Our vision is that the TXMHMR service
				  system will become one that is permeated with a commitment to continuous
				  quality improvement (CQI) that is truly customer-driven. It embraces the belief
				  that large public systems even with their inherent regulatory roles and
				  resource limitations can become highly personalized, highly responsive, and
				  highly innovative.
(b) Financial
				  and service responsibilities to persons with disabilities. The Texas MHMR Act
				  requires that TXMHMR identify its priority populations and the minimum array of
				  services necessary to address the needs of persons within these priority
				  populations. This legislation also requires that services be offered first to
				  those most in need and that state dollars be used only for services provided to
				  the priority population.
(1) Mental
				  retardation services.
(A) Mental retardation
				  priority population.
(i) The priority
				  population for mental retardation services consists of the 70,840 persons
				  considered to be the most in need. That is approximately 15% of the 480,000
				  Texans with mental retardation. TXMHMR estimates that there are approximately
				  26,000 persons with mental retardation in the priority population who currently
				  require our agency's services and are not receiving them.
(ii) TXMHMR's priority population for mental
				  retardation services includes those persons who request and need services and
				  possess one or more of the following conditions:
(I) mental retardation, as defined by the
				  Health and Safety Code, Title 7, §
														591.003(13);
(II) autism, as defined in the current
				  edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM);
(III) eligibility for Early Childhood
				  Intervention services; or
(IV)
				  eligibility for Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987-mandated services for
				  mental retardation or a related condition as per specific
				  legislation.
(iii) The
				  presence of mental retardation must be determined through a recognized
				  diagnosis and evaluation process or through the use of assessments performed by
				  qualified professionals as per interagency memoranda of understanding. Results
				  of evaluations by appropriately credentialed professionals can be used to
				  determine the presence of autism. For persons with mental retardation or
				  autism, the priority population includes only those individuals whose needs for
				  services can be most appropriately met through programs currently or
				  potentially offered by TXMHMR rather than some other service system. Services
				  are to be offered in coordination with efforts of other agencies to ensure that
				  all services are provided by agencies as required by laws, rules, and
				  regulations. The priority population does not include persons whose service
				  needs may be most appropriately met through other means, as determined by
				  TXMHMR.
(iv) Persons who are
				  members of the priority population are eligible to receive services from
				  TXMHMR. Since resources are insufficient to meet all the service needs of all
				  the members of the priority population, services should be provided to meet the
				  most intense needs first.
(v)
				  Service participant groups include only members of the priority populations.
				  The purpose of grouping service participants is to provide a structure for
				  gathering data about members of the priority population who have specific
				  characteristics which seem to influence the type and intensity of services
				  required to meet their needs. These groups are mutually exclusive. If an
				  individual has characteristics of more than one group, assignment should be
				  made to the group that most accurately characterizes the person's most intense
				  service needs. No one group has priority over any other group.
(vi) Service participant groups are comprised
				  of members of the priority population who:
(I) have a challenging behavior (CB) (with or
				  without a mental illness diagnosis) or which requires frequent intervention or
				  regular monitoring. The severity of the behavior is such that it interferes
				  significantly with daily living or learning activities;
(II) have a severely challenging behavior
				  (SB) (with or without a mental illness diagnosis). The severity of the behavior
				  is such that it seriously threatens the health and safety of this person or
				  others. The management of the behavior is a primary consideration in planning
				  the individual's activities;
(III)
				  have a severe physical disability (PD) as evidenced by a need for an ongoing
				  program designed and monitored by a professionally qualified habilitation
				  therapist or specialist. Such programs are designed to alleviate the primary
				  condition and decrease the effects of any secondary disability. These
				  disabilities may include, but are not limited to, eating problems, ambulation
				  problems, severe sensory (tactile, visual, or auditory) impairments, and other
				  major physical disabilities;
(IV)
				  have a health care (HC) need so severe that its treatment and monitoring are
				  the foremost considerations in planning the individual's activities. Immediate
				  24-hour response from nursing staff, weekly physician intervention, and
				  monitoring of a health care plan by a professional nurse is often
				  needed;
(V) need either training or
				  support (TS) to enable or maintain their community arrangements for living,
				  working, or training;
(VI) are
				  eligible to receive early childhood intervention (ECI) services according to
				  the following criteria.
(-a-) A child is
				  eligible for ECI services if the child is under three years of age, including
				  those children authorized for services as visually or auditory impaired
				  children under the Texas Education Code.
(-b-) A child is eligible for ECI services if
				  the child is documented as developmentally delayed or has a medically diagnosed
				  physical or mental condition that has a high probability of resulting in
				  developmental delay.