It Takes a Village and OhioRISE Is Showing Up
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Supporting families through crisis, one connection at a time.
Your phone rings for the third time today. The school cannot manage your child’s needs. The teachers are overwhelmed and understaffed. Their experience only hints at the realities you face at home. Your other kids are falling behind because they have learned not to need you. Your partner works late to stay afloat, and your nights blur together with screams, broken sleep, and freshly patched holes in the walls. You are not just overwhelmed; you feel alone and out of options.
Many families across Ohio do not have to imagine what this is like; it's just their reality.
Ohio’s healthcare and education systems are overloaded, but families can’t wait for reform. They need help now. That’s where OhioRISE comes in. OhioRISE provides wraparound care for individuals and families impacted by intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) diagnoses. These services address an individual’s well-being, encompassing their mental and physical health, education, housing, and relationships.
OhioRISE's end goal is to provide the behavioral support needed to keep children in their homes and families united. This means more than caring for the individual; it is also about supporting the community and caregivers around them who make the biggest difference. Boundless is a care management entity (CME) for OhioRISE in Delaware, Licking, Morrow, and Knox counties. Their care coordinators are professional problem solvers who work to find and fix the actual needs of individuals and their families. They collaborate not only with Medicare and designated insurance provider Aetna, but also with agencies and programs throughout Ohio.
Those who provide care to individuals needing moderate or intensive support (tier two and three) wear many hats. I am Boundless care coordinator supervisors, Tabitha Caplinger-Lightning and Courtney Reed sat down to share how their work centers families, not just diagnoses. They don’t wear capes or have titles that make headlines, yet every day, care coordinators like Caplinger-Lightning and Reed change lives. “We're counselors. We are moms,” said Caplinger-Lightning. “As a supervisor, I feel like there are so many roles for Ohio Rise that it's kind of difficult to really explain that.”
The individuals served by OhioRISE vary in demographics and needs. Care coordinators serve individuals as young as three years old and up to twenty-one years old, all of whom come from different nationalities and life circumstances. Each county under OhioRISE’s purview comes with its unique challenges and resources. Finding care can be a struggle and requires trial, error, and networking. In all circumstances, OhioRISE works to promote family voice and choice, which amplifies the voices of individuals and their families; meaning families help shape their care plans, choose who’s on their care team, and have a say in how they use resources.
Families also get a say in the usage of their government-provided funds. OhioRISE awards $1500 in flex funds to the children they work with. For those eligible to fill out the 1915c waiver, secondary flex funds of $3000 are awarded, in addition to an emergency fund of $2000. These funds don’t just go to the individual; they relieve pressure on entire families. “I just got an e-bike approved for an individual because Mom works all the time just to make ends meet,” Reed shared. The nineteen-year-old individual needed the e-bike to get to work, engage in the community, and be more self-sufficient. Solutions like this improve individual's connections inside and outside their homes, and more importantly, keep children with their families.
Similarly, Caplinger-Lightning shared the story of a thirteen-year-old individual diagnosed with autism. “She also has pica and intellectual developmental delays. Her condition is so severe that it is hard to even find staff to assist.” The individual’s entire family felt the impact of her condition. Despite daytime care, which required two-on-one aid at an alternative school, the family was overwhelmed. Even the neighbors had complaints about the noise of the youth, as, according to Caplinger-Lightning, “Through the night she will scream and yell and bang her head through the walls, and I mean there are holes all in the walls in their home.” In response to the severity of the situation, Caplinger-Lightning was able to connect with Habitat for Humanity, who agreed to build a home for the family where the individual has a private backyard with a fence where she can use a trampoline to burn her energy in a contained environment. This solution returned a sense of safety to the home that improved not just the individual’s quality of life but that of her parents, brother, and neighbors.
Caplinger-Lighting and Reed shared many more stories of the strings they pull to gain assistance for the individuals they work with. A service dog from Central Ohio Service Dogs, a brand-new home with a trampoline, an e-bike, and even a gecko as a service animal in a home with allergies. These are just some of the surprising tools OhioRISE care coordinators have used to improve a child’s stability. Demonstrating creative problem-solving can give individuals back parts of their lives.
Some individuals’ circumstances require simple but important solutions. Reed shared about a non-speaking, autistic individual that had been in an alternative school, where troubled kids, kicked out of previous schools, can receive an education. She shared that the mom was being called away from work two to three times a week because even that school couldn’t manage the individual’s needs. So, Reed buckled down and found an autistic school in Zanesville for the child. A few years have passed since Reed found that placement, but the individual has found success and graduated just weeks ago.
Success stories like these make all the difference in a “job that is so heavy that it doesn’t feel rewarding at all,” as put by Caplinger-Lightning. Each story is about more than individual success; they share wins for entire families and care teams. She elaborated to say, “There are days when it’s just like, why do I even do this? But then when those things happen, you see the families, and they're doing great, you know? The child is now doing great in school or whatever the case may be, and when you get those moments, you feel that. It’s so heartwarming, and it’s so rewarding. It’s like a reminder of this is why I carry those heavy days and why I sit in this chair until my feet go numb.”
While you’re scrolling through your phone or grabbing coffee, people like Caplinger-Lightning and Reed are spending their day on the phone with countless programs, trying to help children obtain the resources they need. Caplinger-Lightning and Reed both strive to be light in an over-saturated system. It isn’t easy for these individuals and their families, but Caplinger-Lightning, Reed, and the entire Boundless OhioRISE staff are there to help guide them through the toughest parts of life and find them the help they deserve. The love and compassion for the individuals they serve are only matched by that which they hold for their team and each other. In discussing her team, Caplinger-Lightning shared, “I just pride myself in making sure that they are on top of everything and just being there to support them and whatever they may need, whether it’s in their personal lives or work-related. I am proud of the connections that I have with my staff.” It’s also worth noting that Caplinger-Lightning was named Champion of the Year by her peers in the Boundless employee recognition program.
Serving upwards of 38,000 children and youth across Ohio, the OhioRISE team members are putting in the work to uplift not only individuals but also their families and communities by moving from crisis to connection and improving individuals' quality of life.
