Disability Services & Supported Living
Technology that fits individualized support in residential and community programs
For IDD organizations, supported living providers, and group home operators. Technology set up around each person’s plan, so supports hold steady across shifts, staff changes, and residences.
Discuss Your Residential ProgramServices that happen in people’s homes
One house with three residents can hold three very different plans. One person wants to cook breakfast without staff stepping in. Another needs reminders to catch the bus to work. A third wants a quiet evening with few check-ins. Staff who rotate through shifts, and sometimes sites, carry out all three.
Your organization is responsible for delivering those services consistently. That covers staffing, supervision, documentation, incident procedures, and the rules of the waiver or program that authorizes them. Technology helps when it is chosen around the person and the plan. It adds burden when it is chosen around a product.
Gray Matters Alliance plans and implements assistive, enabling, and remote support technology that respects residents and the staff who support them.
What residential and supported living leaders are working through
Consistency across shifts
Morning staff know how someone likes their routine. Overnight staff may not. Details get lost at handoff, and residents notice.
Supporting more independence
Many people want more time without staff, at home and in the community. Programs want to support that in a way the planning team agrees on.
Coordinating across sites
Supervisors oversee several homes. Getting a current picture without driving between them or calling each house is hard.
Alert workflows staff can sustain
A notification for everything soon gets ignored. Alerts should reflect each plan and reach the right role under program procedures.
Residents’ privacy where they live
Residents are entitled to privacy where they live. Supports should be set per person and per plan, not as blanket monitoring of a house.
Training with turnover
New staff must learn each person’s supports quickly. Tools that need long training for every new hire do not hold up.
What GMA can provide for disability service providers
We start from the person’s goals and your program’s duties, then match technology to both. That may include:
- Enabling technology. Enabling technology that helps a person do more on their own: routine prompts, reminders, communication tools, and home automation.
- Assistive technology and adaptive equipment. Assistive technology, adaptive equipment, accessibility solutions, and durable and specified medical equipment matched to each person.
- Environmental technology. Home technology set to a person’s plan that gives staff relevant information without cameras. Where a plan calls for it, this can include fall-related notifications to the on-shift or on-call role. These give awareness of a possible fall; they do not prevent falls.
- Person-centered location awareness. For a person whose plan addresses elopement or wandering. Set up with the person and their authorized support network, and visible only to the roles who need it.
- Remote support technology. Remote support technology that your organization operates under its own procedures and staffing model.
- Implementation services. Consultation, planning, setup, staff training, follow-up, and ongoing support across your residences.
Situations residential teams will recognize
Each example is a composite. None describes a real resident, provider, or result.
Illustrative example
More time on their own, by the resident’s choice
- Setting
- A supported living apartment with scheduled staff support.
- Objective
- The resident wants more evening hours alone, and the planning team supports exploring it.
- Challenge
- The team needs to stay informed about agreed situations without staff on site.
- Possible approach
- Routine prompts and select home supports, set only for the situations the person and team agreed on. Alerts go to the program’s on-call role.
- Intended benefit
- More self-directed time, supported in a way the team can sustain.
- Implementation considerations
- The person’s informed agreement, plan documentation, a gradual transition, and a set review date.
Illustrative example
Keeping routines consistent across shifts
- Setting
- A group home with three residents and staff rotating across three shifts.
- Objective
- Each resident’s routine runs the way they prefer, whoever is on shift.
- Challenge
- Preferences live in binders and in individual staff members’ memories.
- Possible approach
- Reminders and schedules each resident uses directly, plus summaries that show incoming staff what matters at the start of a shift.
- Intended benefit
- Routines that stay with the person, and handoffs that rely less on memory.
- Implementation considerations
- Each resident’s communication preferences, staff training, and who updates a schedule when it changes.
Illustrative example
An elopement-related need, addressed in the plan
- Setting
- A group home where one resident has left at night a few times without telling staff. The planning team is reviewing the behavior support plan.
- Objective
- Support the resident’s safety at night in the least restrictive way the planning team approves, without locked doors or limits on housemates.
- Challenge
- Any response must be the least restrictive option, pass the program’s rights and plan review, and be acceptable to the resident.
- Possible approach
- Location awareness and a geofence set only for this resident and only for agreed overnight hours. Notifications go to the awake overnight staff role.
- Intended benefit
- A targeted support for one person’s need that leaves housemates’ routines and privacy untouched.
- Implementation considerations
- The resident’s involvement, guardian authorization where one is involved, plan documentation, which roles can see location, and a review date to reduce or end the support.
Illustrative example
Overseeing several residences
- Setting
- One program manager over several homes in a region.
- Objective
- Give supervisors a current view across homes so they can focus where needed.
- Challenge
- Updates arrive by calls, texts, and shift notes. Patterns across sites are hard to see.
- Possible approach
- CompassCare Command Center set up for multiple people and locations, with role-based access and alert routing aligned to program procedures.
- Intended benefit
- Better awareness for supervisors, with decisions still made by the people responsible.
- Implementation considerations
- Defining what each role sees, training at each site, and starting with one or two homes.
Rolling out across your homes
- Start with the person. Recommendations are tied to individual plans and built with the person and their planning team, never applied house-wide by default.
- Understand the whole picture. We learn your staffing model and review each home’s layout, connectivity, and routines.
- Explore possibilities. Many providers start with one home or a small group of people who want to take part.
- Configure and implement. Supports and alerts are set per person and routed by your program procedures.
- Train. Direct support professionals, house leads, and supervisors are trained, with materials that help new hires get up to speed.
- Stay connected. We review what works, adjust as plans change, and help plan any expansion to more residences.
Who sees what, and when Command Center fits
The GMA MyCompass System has an experience for the person (MyCompass), for families and authorized caregivers (CompassCare), and for organizations (CompassCare Command Center). Access is role-based and set per person and plan. In a residential deployment, it may look like this:
- The personUses their own reminders, schedules, and prompts, and helps decide what others may see.
- Direct support staff on shiftMay see what the plan calls for during their shift, such as a start-of-shift summary.
- House lead or supervisorMay see notifications routed to their role and a current view of their home.
- Program leadershipMay see a view across homes, configured to what oversight requires.
- Family or guardianMay see, through CompassCare, only what the person and program have authorized.
Nora Caregiver Intelligence gives each role a summary suited to it, within defined permissions. Staff and supervisors make the decisions. Not every data point becomes an alert, which is meant to keep on-call supervisors from being flooded. Learn more about MyCompass experiences.
Command Center may fit when
- You support many people across several residences.
- Supervisors need a current view across homes.
- You want role-based access and alert routing that follow program procedures.
It may not be needed when
- You support a few people in one setting.
- Standalone enabling technology and assistive devices already meet people’s needs.
- A simpler setup would do the job. We will say so.
Person-centered privacy and clear responsibility
Technology in someone’s home should support the life they want, not observe it.
- Set per person and per plan. Supports reflect what each person and their planning team agreed on. This is not open-ended monitoring of a household.
- No cameras in the home. MyCompass monitoring is data-based. Nothing in a bedroom or bathroom is watched.
- Location awareness is never a house default. It is set up only for a person whose plan addresses elopement or wandering, with their involvement, the required authorization, and the least intrusive setup that meets the need. Where a guardian is involved, we still work to include the person’s own preferences.
- Your organization owns operations. Staffing ratios, supervision, incident procedures, and who responds to an alert stay with you. GMA provides the technology and support. We do not run a response center or replace DSPs.
Your compliance or IT lead can start with the MyCompass security overview, then ask us for the security, governance, and procurement assurance materials your review requires.
Waiver funding and organizational purchasing
In residential services, technology is often written into a person’s waiver-funded plan. Your organization may also buy it directly. Which route applies varies by state and program.
GMA is an approved provider for certain waiver programs; current approvals are on the coverage map. Your own purchasing or contracts, private pay, or another payer may also apply, case by case.
Provider status does not mean a service will be authorized, covered, or reimbursed for any person. The planning process and funding source decide. For current status, check the coverage map on our About page.
Questions from residential and supported living providers
Does technology replace staff in our homes?
No. Technology can support staff and help people do more on their own. It does not replace direct support professionals or supervision. Staffing decisions stay with your organization and the planning team.
Can supports differ for each resident in the same house?
Yes. One resident might use routine prompts only, while another has agreed to specific home notifications. Nothing has to apply to everyone in a home.
A resident has left the house at night. Is location awareness an option?
It can be, if the planning team adds it to that person’s support plan. It is set for that person only, with their involvement and the required authorization, visible only to designated roles, and reviewed over time. It is a safety-planning tool, not tracking of residents.
Who responds when an alert comes in?
Your staff do, under your incident and on-call procedures. During setup we map each alert type to a role, such as awake overnight staff, house lead, or on-call supervisor. Routing then matches how your homes already run.
Can we start with one residence?
Yes. Starting with one home or a small group who want to take part is a practical way to learn before expanding.
Can GMA help our organization develop its own remote supports program?
Yes. GMA works with provider organizations so they can develop their own remote supports program, including setting up and running their own remote supports center (also called a remote support or remote monitoring center). GMA provides the GMA MyCompass System software, including the CompassCare Command Center, and helps with policies and procedures, continuity and backup planning, implementation and staff training.
Your organization remains responsible for its staffing, supervision and response, and for following your state’s remote supports rules. GMA does not operate the response center and does not guarantee regulatory compliance. To start a conversation, contact GMA.
Does GMA help providers develop remote supports policies and procedures?
Yes. As part of implementation, GMA helps provider organizations develop the policies, procedures and continuity plans they need to run their own remote supports operation.
Each organization adopts and owns its policies and remains responsible for meeting its state’s rules, which differ from state to state. GMA does not guarantee regulatory compliance.
Talk with us about your residential or supported living program
Share your settings and what you hope technology can help with. We can suggest a practical start, such as a single residence.
Discuss Your Residential ProgramPlease don’t include personal or health information about the people you support in your first message.
Person-centered technology, equipment, services, and ongoing support. Every recommendation begins with the person.
Office: 122 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO 63301
Mailing: 119 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO 63301
314-266-2678
info@graymattersalliance.com
