Partnering with Your Service Coordinator

Your Primary Contact and Partner

One of the most important partnerships is the relationship between a service coordinator and a family. Your service coordinator is your primary contact and partner at Lanterman. He or she is a professional with experience in the area of developmental disabilities and knowledge about services, supports and other resources. Your service coordinator will work with you on the development and implementation of an IPP, which serves as a roadmap toward achievement of desired outcomes. He or she can also provide information and guidance to help you make informed decisions about the plans, services and supports necessary to accomplish goals identified in the IPP.

How are Service Coordinators Assigned to Families?

Service coordinators are organized into teams serving specific age groups and geographic areas. Whenever possible, they are also matched with individuals and families based on primary language needs.

Every effort is made to ensure stability and continuity for individuals and families with their assigned service coordinator. Since Lanterman is organized to support individuals and their families around ages and geographic locations, however, everyone experience an occasional change in service coordinator associated with specific transitions.

When do Transitions Occur?

When your child turns 3, if he or she continues to be eligible for regional center services, a transition will occur from Early Intervention to one of our Early Childhood units.
When your child turns 5, if he or she continues to be eligible for regional center services, a transition will occur from Early Childhood to one of our School-Age units.
Around age 16, your child will again transition from School Age to one of our Ongoing units.
If your family moves from one geographic area to another but is still within Lanterman’s service area, your family member will be transferred to the team serving your new area.
If your service coordinator leaves Lanterman or takes a new position within the Center you will be assigned a new service coordinator.
Every year, you will be given an opportunity to formally evaluate your service coordinator’s performance. As part of this evaluation, you will be asked whether you wish to continue working with him or her for the coming year.
If you become dissatisfied with your service coordinator at any time, you should contact the regional manager for the unit that serves you and discuss your concerns. He or she may try to help you resolve the issues or may assign a different service coordinator.
In some circumstances, if you and your service coordinator are just not a good match, the service coordinator may also request a change.

During these times of transition, someone will always be available to help ensure that your service needs are met until you are assigned a new service coordinator. If you need help during a transition period, call the unit that serves your family member and ask to speak to the officer of the day.

Contacting and Meeting Your Service Coordinator

Your service coordinator can be contacted by telephone, e-mail and regular mail. E-mail is a good way to communicate with your service coordinator about regular business and non-urgent issues. However, since service coordinators spend much of their time out of the office meeting with individuals and families, they check their voicemail messages regularly. This means that voicemail is a very effective way to communicate with your service coordinator, so when you call be sure to leave a message.

Tips for Leaving a Message

Your message should include:

Your full name
The full name of your child (if applicable)
A phone number where the service coordinator can reach you
Good times to return your call
The reason for your call

Service coordinators make every effort to return calls by the end of the next business day. If they are not able to return calls within this time period, for reasons such as illness or vacation, they will leave instructions on their outgoing message about whom you should contact in their absence.

If you wish to have a face-to-face meeting with your service coordinator, it is best to schedule an appointment well in advance. These meetings typically take place at the individual’s/family’s residence, but they can also be held at the Regional Center or another mutually agreed upon location.

Emergency?

How to Get Help in an Urgent Situation

If an urgent but not life threatening situation arises during regular business hours, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., call your service coordinator.

After Business Hours/Weekends/Holidays, call Lanterman’s main phone number at 213.383.1300 and follow the instructions for the emergency response system.

Service Coordinators’ Responsibilities in the Partnership

Service coordinators are responsible for helping individuals and their families access information and make decisions and choices about desired outcomes. They also help them develop plans for working toward these outcomes and for identifying and accessing the services and supports necessary to achieve them. This process is what we refer to as service coordination. An overarching responsibility of Lanterman’s service coordinators is to identify and access services that are cost-effective and are provided in natural environments in the community.

Families’ Responsibilities in the Partnership

When families partner with Lanterman and become active and informed participants, they are better able to access the resources, services and supports necessary to achieve their desired outcomes.

Tips for Forming a Successful Family-Professional Partnership

Sign and return your Individual Program Plan documents, amendments and agreements promptly. Your signature on these documents is necessary for the funding authorization process for the services and supports outlined in the IPP.
Plan ahead. The funding process takes time, so give your service coordinator ample time to request services. Service coordinators must follow an approval process and may have to research specific funding criteria. On average, the approval process takes about two weeks.
Request timely and up-to-date progress reports and evaluations for yourself from anyone working with your child, whether the service or support is funded by Lanterman or you are paying for it yourself. Be sure to maintain a file of these documents and to share them with your service coordinator. He or she will keep a copy of them on file since they will be important when a renewal or reauthorization of funding is requested.
Provide your service coordinator with a copy of your child’s Individualized Education Program. Schools cannot release the IEP to regional centers, so families are a service coordinator’s only source of this document.
Keep your service coordinator up to date about what’s going on with your family. Let him or her know about hospitalizations, suspensions from school, if you have a family crisis, or if you suspect abuse.
If you need assistance from your service coordinator for a meeting such as the IEP, let your service coordinator know as soon as you are notified. The more notice you give your service coordinator, the better he or she will be able to support you. And remember, your service coordinator may only attend the meeting at your invitation.

FAQ

Get Answers

Why is it important for my service coordinator to visit me in my home?

It is important for service coordinators to visit individuals and their families in their homes rather than another more public setting. Many of the issues discussed at a meeting are personal and private and it is difficult to maintain a desired level of privacy and confidentiality when these matters are discussed in a setting such as a coffee shop or restaurant. Additionally, it is essential for service coordinators to be familiar with an individual’s home situation so they can make the appropriate recommendations, especially in regards to in-home supports. The more they understand and know about you and your family, the better they are able to support you.

What is a Circle of Support?

According to the Lanterman Act: “Circle of support means a committed group of community members, who may include family members, meeting regularly with an individual with developmental disabilities in order to share experiences, promote autonomy and community involvement, and assist the individual in establishing and maintaining natural supports. A circle of support generally includes a plurality of members who neither provide nor receive services or supports for persons with developmental disabilities and who do not receive payment for participation in the circle of support.” [Section 4512 (f)]

In other words, a circle of support is a group of people who play an important role in the life of an individual by providing support in different ways during their day-to-day interactions with that person. Anyone that plays a supportive role in the person’s life is part of his or her circle of support. This could be a family member, a neighbor, or a school or work friend.

Where else can I find support within the Lanterman Community?

Families have told us over the years that one of the most important things they learn at the Regional Center is that they are not alone – that other parents of children with special needs share their experiences and feelings. Here are some things that parents have told us that have been particularly helpful to them:

Seek out peer support from other families who have “been there” by joining a support group or requesting a Peer Support Partner.
Identify and make use of your own natural support system – family, friends, religious organizations, community.
Keep your expectations high and set challenging, yet realistic, goals.

What should I include in my Lanterman Regional Center home file?

Basic information about you or your family member, such as special needs or medical conditions, so that others can provide consistent care.
A list with contact information of all the people, agencies, programs and organizations that are providing services to you or your family member.
A copy of the current Individual Program Plan and, if applicable, Individualized Education Program.
Copies of reports from independent assessments.
Copies of all written communication (including handwritten) to and from all professionals working with you or your family member.
A list of medications being taken at home, school or work as authorized by the physician. Include the medication name, dosage, time of day taken, and the prescription number and pharmacy. Also note changes in dosage and reactions to the change that you have observed.
Your notes (dated) about meetings or phone conversations with regional center staff, physicians and other professionals working with you or your family member. Also, be sure to include the name of the person with whom you spoke or met.

How should I organize my records?

It is helpful to divide records into subcategories, such as health, education and IPP, and organize them by date with the most recent on top.

It also helps to maintain a notebook containing copies of your most recent records that you can take with you to meetings and appointments. This notebook should include, at a minimum, two years of reports, evaluations and program plans.

What happens if the individual receiving services moves out of Lanterman’s area?

If you or your family moves from Lanterman’s service area to another location in California, services and supports will be provided by the regional center that serves your new geographic area. Lanterman will transfer records to the new regional center. According to the Lanterman Act: “Whenever [an individual] transfers from one regional center catchment area to another, the level and types of services and supports specified in the [individual’s IFSP/IPP] shall be authorized and secured, if available, pending the development of a new [IPP/IFSP] for the [individual]. If these services and supports do not exist, the regional center shall convene a meeting to develop a new [IPP/IFSP] within 30 days. Prior to approval of the new [IPP/IFSP], the regional center shall provide alternative services and supports that best meet the individual program plan objectives in the least restrictive setting.” [Section 4643.5 (c)]

If your family moves out of California, your service coordinator and the Koch-Young Resource Center can help you contact the appropriate developmental services agency and locate related resources in the new state. With your written consent, the Regional Center can also transfer your records to that state’s agency.

Can a person lose his/her eligibility for services?

The Lanterman Act states that a person “who is determined by any regional center to have a developmental disability shall remain eligible for services from regional centers, unless a regional center, following a comprehensive reassessment, concludes that the original determination that the individual has a developmental disability is clearly erroneous.” [Section 4643.5(b)]

What should I do if I do not know my service coordinator’s name?

If you do not know the name of your service coordinator, call the Regional Center at 213.383.1300 and ask the operator to transfer you to the secretary for the unit that is supporting you. If you don’t know the unit, let the operator know the client’s age and what city he or she lives in, and the operator will transfer you to the appropriate unit. Lanterman takes our responsibility to protect the privacy of our clients and their families very seriously, and you may be asked questions to confirm your identity.