TO:                 Members of Congress, the Administration and their Staff

FROM:           Mary McTernan, Ph.D., President

RE:                 Invitation to visit an ICF/MR

We would like to invite you to a visit an ICF/MR.

You are encouraged to visit a facility in your District. VOR is happy to put you in touch with a member who can help arrange the visit.

There is also an excellent facility in Fairfax, Virginia, a short distance from Washington, D.C. The Northern Virginia Training Center provides residential care and other supports to residents with severe and profound mental retardation, as well as a myriad of health care and other services to individuals living in the surrounding communities. VOR would be happy to arrange for a tour at NVTC (contact Tamie Hopp at 605-399-1624; vor@compuserve.com), or you could contact Northern Virginia Training Center directly at 703-323-4000 (Facility Director, Mark Diorio) (http://www.nvtc.dmhmrsas.virginia.gov/contacts.asp).

A visit to a facility will help provide some perspective on three VOR priorities:

(1) The People Served: People with severe and profound mental retardation and the specialized, Medicaid-supported services they require.

(2) Choice in Medicaid Long Term Care Options: The importance of a full spectrum of Medicaid services to meet the full spectrum of support needs, as supported by Federal law (Medicaid, Olmstead, etc.).

(3)  The Community Resource Center Model:  A model that allows individuals living in community settings to access health care services at existing Intermediate Care Facilities for Persons with Mental Retardation (ICFs/MR), on an outpatient basis.

We feel strongly that your long term care discussions will be enhanced by an onsite review. Seeing is believing. Thank you for your consideration.

VOR * 836 S. Arlington Heights Rd., #351 * Elk Grove Village, Illinois * 60007

877-399-4VOR ph. * 847-253-0675 fax * tamie327@hotmail.com