Nashville, TN — In an effort to improve services for individuals with mental retardation, state officials and The Tennessee Association of Retarded Citizens (The ARC) have scheduled a series of seven meetings with consumers across the state.

"We are working hard to improve our program for individuals with mental retardation in Tennessee," said Joanna Damons, director of the TennCare Division of Long Term Care (TDLTC), which is responsible for the administrative oversight of the Home and Community Based Services Waiver for individuals with mental retardation. "We hope to come away from these meetings with some solutions to problems we've identified."

TDLTC is mailing to consumers and representatives packets that include the meeting schedule, agenda for each meeting and information about disability organizations and support groups.

TDLTC is also meeting with providers of mental retardation services. Provider meetings are scheduled concurrent with consumer meetings, but at a separate time to allow for evening consumer meetings. At each location, consumer meetings will be held from 6 - 8 PM local time, with provider meetings held from 1 - 3 PM local time.

The schedule for consumer and provider meetings is: