Dear Dan, since the inception of NAPP, we have been working with you, aka: “The Father of PASRR,” and have enormous respect for your relentless enthusiasm and energy for the work you do. You have been a mentor to us all.

Without your guidance and encouragement there wouldn't be a NAPP and PASRR wouldn't have progressed to the program it is today. Some of us go back to your keynote PASRR presentation at the Baltimore conference followed by your visionary brain storming in the impromptu meeting over lunch. Here the decision was made for the 2008 creation of NAPP. Your leadership and mentoring, along with many more post conference dinner meetings, has brought NAPP down many exciting roads.

The success of these National PASRR conference developments rested on your advocacy in realization of the advantage in the 75% PASRR match. PASRR dissemination and growth among states expanded through your vision of the PTAC and NAPP collaboration. Through your leadership, NAPP found a “niche” in educational initiatives to support PASRR quality and best practice development. Your insight, commitment and mastery of collaboration is key to the PTAC/NAPP partnership we hold today.

State by state, we join in your broader vision of PASRR; seeing that it is an integral part of a state's long-term care system. State thinking has broadened on how the enhanced Medicaid funding could be used to support PASRR activities. Encouragement for partnerships between state Medicaid authorities and other state entities including the health, mental health, and intellectual disability systems, and the Aging Network remains a key focus in support of PASRR growth.

NAPP is taking positive steps toward improving the organization in becoming increasingly independent, enhancing the level of professionalism, supporting commitment to collaborative initiatives in PASRR strategy, and knowledge transfer through NAPP. We are in the final development stages of the NAPP specialized services survey to gain data support in NF specialized services development. Our major goal is advancing your mantra that people with disabilities deserve to receive ALL of the disability-specific services they require to promote their independence and recovery.

We have joined in your remarkable career in making the lives of nursing facility residents with mental illnesses and/or intellectual disabilities better and increasing the possibility of recovery and being discharged or being diverted to more appropriate community-based settings.

You are in the thoughts and prayers of the NAPP Board and the larger membership.

Sincerely Yours,

On behalf of the NAPP board and membership at large

Lila Rajesh Tara

Ken Brandon Janet

Andrea Sam Willard

Nancy Dennis