Missouri manual section 6.8
Developmental-disability crisis intervention
Official service name: Crisis Intervention
Crisis Intervention is a time-limited Missouri DD waiver service delivered by a qualified crisis team when severe personal, social, or behavioral problems are likely to threaten health or safety or cause a person to lose the current living arrangement. The service can assess the crisis, develop and carry out a formal intervention plan, provide intensive supervision or temporary support, and monitor whether the plan is working.
What the manual describes
What this service can help with
- Rapid therapeutic assessment of factors contributing to a serious behavioral or social crisis
- A written, time-limited intervention plan focused on stabilizing the immediate situation
- Coordinating with people connected to the crisis and monitoring whether interventions are carried out as designed
- Intensive direct supervision when aggression or another action may threaten the health or safety of the person or others
- Temporary crisis drop-in or residential crisis-bed support when authorized
- Support intended to reduce the risk of losing the person's current home or moving to an institutional setting
Source-backed working pathway
To establish you'll probably need:
These steps translate the cited manual section into a practical review sequence. Confirm the current local process before acting.
Describe the crisis pattern and the immediate risk to stability.
Tell the support coordinator and planning team what is happening, what appears to contribute to it, how often it occurs, who is affected, and why it may threaten health, safety, or the person's current living arrangement.
Confirm the waiver and funding route.
Confirm that the person uses a waiver that includes Crisis Intervention and identify any Medicaid state-plan or Healthy Children and Youth crisis service that must be used first. Define what additional need remains for the waiver team.
Define the time-limited service in the person-centered plan.
The plan should identify the assessed crisis need, approved dates, objectives, requested service components, settings, team roles, coordination with current supports, and how duplication with Group Home, Individualized Supported Living, Shared Living, or other services will be avoided.
Identify a qualified crisis team.
Confirm whether the team will be provided by a qualified contracted agency, a Division of Developmental Disabilities regional office, or a habilitation center. Verify that Crisis Professionals and Crisis Technicians meet the manual's licensure, experience, training, supervision, first-aid, and medication-support requirements.
Confirm authorization, activation, monitoring, and the exit plan.
Confirm the authorized dates and units, how the approved team is contacted, where services may occur, how the formal intervention plan will be shared and monitored, what documentation is required, and what review or approval is needed if the service must continue beyond the ordinary time limit.
Important boundaries
Limits that may affect fit or authorization
- Crisis Intervention is available through the Comprehensive, Community Support, and MOCDD waivers; the manual does not list it for Partnership for Hope.
- This is an authorized waiver service available during approved dates. This guide explains how that service may be established; it is not an active-emergency response plan.
- The manual describes Crisis Intervention as time limited and generally limited to 2,920 units per participant in an annual person-centered service plan year. Services beyond that limit require an amended or new plan and approval by the relevant regional director.
- Available Medicaid state-plan crisis services, including Healthy Children and Youth services for an eligible person under 21, must be used before overlapping waiver Crisis Intervention.
- The waiver service is intended to be delivered by a team of Crisis Professionals and Crisis Technicians, not by one person acting alone.
- The manual permits the service in a home, with Group Home, Individualized Supported Living or Shared Living services, and elsewhere in the community, but services cannot duplicate another funded support.
- Comprehensive and Community Support waivers remain under a temporary renewal extension through December 27, 2026, or until CMS grants final approval. Confirm the currently approved rules with the support coordinator; proposed renewal changes are not automatically active.
Do not assume this part
Questions to confirm locally
- Is the person enrolled in the Comprehensive, Community Support, or MOCDD waiver?
- Which state-plan or Healthy Children and Youth crisis services are available and must be used first?
- What specific additional need requires waiver Crisis Intervention?
- Which components, settings, dates, units, and team roles are being requested in the person-centered plan?
- Which qualified team can provide the approved service and how is that team activated during the approved dates?
- How will the crisis intervention plan coordinate with existing residential, behavioral, clinical, and emergency supports without duplicating them?
- What stabilization measures, documentation, review points, transition plan, and extension approval process will apply?