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    Intellectual Disabilities Services

    Independent Monitoring for Quality

    Independent Monitoring for Quality (IM4Q) is a way the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) collects information to improve the lives of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

    What is Independent Quality Monitoring?

    Independent interview teams ask a random sampling of people across the state how satisfied they are with the services they receive and about their overall lives. This information ensures that the people who ODP serves, and their family members, are heard, and that policy decisions are made with consideration to what they have said. 

    How does it work?

    Individuals who are receiving services are asked if an IM4Q team can interview them. They can choose whether or not to participate.

    • The individual can choose whether they want to have the interview in person or virtually using Zoom. If they choose an in-person interview, the interview team can meet the individual where he or she feels most comfortable: at home or day program, or out in the community, for example.
    • The team, typically two or three people, has at least one member who is either an individual with a disability or a family member of an individual with a disability.
    • The team is independent, which means they are not from ODP, the county, or the individual's provider.

    With the individual's permission, the team will ask a series of questions. Topics include:

    • Satisfaction
    • Dignity, respect, & rights
    • Emergency preparation
    • Employment
    • Relationships
    • Inclusion
    • Choice and control

    If the person being interviewed consents, the team will share suggestions for improving their life, which could also come from their family members or paid staff, with the county mental health/intellectual disabilities program and their supports coordinator for appropriate follow-up activities. When their responses are combined with other  responses, anonymous data reports are then used in many ways:

    • The reports are shared with ODP and its stakeholders for ongoing quality improvement by ODP, Administrative Entities, and provider quality groups.
    • An IM4Q Steering Committee of ODP stakeholders identifies system improvement recommendations for action or change and submits them to ODP's Information Sharing and Advisory Committee (ISAC), which serves as ODP's stakeholder quality council.
    • ODP, in conjunction with the ISAC, prioritizes areas where the service system can be improved, then issues these priorities to its stakeholders.
    • ODP and the ISAC use data to guide, track, and assess changes made to improve the service system.

    For more information on local independent monitoring programs or reports, contact ODP IM4Q/NCI.