The purpose of this chapter is to:

(1) Establish a balanced range of health, social, and supportive services that deliver long-term care services to persons with chronic functional disabilities of all ages;

(2) Ensure that functional ability shall be the determining factor in defining long-term care service needs and that these needs will be determined by a uniform system for comprehensively assessing functional disability;

(3) Ensure that services are provided in the most independent living situation consistent with individual needs;

(4) Ensure that long-term care service options shall be developed and made available that enable persons with functional disabilities to continue to live in their homes or other community residential facilities while in the care of their families or other volunteer support persons;

(5) Ensure that long-term care services are coordinated in a way that minimizes administrative cost, eliminates unnecessarily complex organization, minimizes program and service duplication, and maximizes the use of financial resources in directly meeting the needs of persons with functional limitations;

(6) Develop a systematic plan for the coordination, planning, budgeting, and administration of long-term care services now fragmented between the division of developmental disabilities, division of mental health, aging and adult services administration, division of children and family services, division of vocational rehabilitation, division of health, bureau of alcohol and substance abuse, and the department of health;

(7) Encourage the development of a statewide long-term care case management system that effectively coordinates the plan of care and services provided to eligible clients;

(8) Ensure that individuals and organizations affected by or interested in long-term care programs have an opportunity to participate in identification of needs and priorities, policy development, planning, and development, implementation, and monitoring of state supported long-term care programs;

(9) Support educational institutions in Washington state to assist in the procurement of federal support for expanded research and training in long-term care; and

(10) Facilitate the development of a coordinated system of long-term care education that is clearly articulated between all levels of higher education and reflective of both in-home care needs and institutional care needs of persons with functional disabilities.

Conflict with federal requirements—Severability—Effective date—1995 1st sp.s. c 18: See notes following RCW 74.39A.030.