Welcome VNSNY CHOICE Members!

For 20 years, ICS has helped people with disabilities to live independently, at home, in their communities. ICS members include individuals with spinal cord injury, MS, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, and many other conditions that limit their mobility. We are the first and only program of its kind designated by the New York State Department of Health as expert in working with people with physical disabilities. Read more about our disability expertise. See what people say about ICS. Watch a member video.

ICS is a leader in comprehensive wheelchair services for low-income New Yorkers with disabilities. Today, the ICS On a Roll wheelchair evaluation program is a premier provider of specialized mobility assessments by expert occupational and physical therapists. Here’s everything you need to know about On A Roll services.

Adults with physical disabilities are generally at high risk for pressure wounds due to factors that include immobility, incontinence, diabetes, lack of sensation in parts of the body, and other factors that increase the risk of skin and tissue breakdown. Learn about the ICS wound prevention program. Read or download our wound prevention tip sheet.

The ICS Benefits Resource Department supports members in applying for and maintaining housing, food, and financial benefits, as well as connecting them with helpful resources in their communities. See how ICS helped one member find an apartment.

ICS can help schedule and coordinate member medical appointments, make sure doctors are communicating with each other, and help members understand their condition and the steps needed to stay healthy. This includes making sure members get their medications, seeing that follow up appointments are scheduled, and that family members and aides understand the member’s conditions and care. If needed, a community health worker can also accompany a member to the doctor to make sure that all of their questions and concerns are addressed.

The ICS Independent Living Program can pair members with a mentor who also has a disability. Mentors support members who want to develop new skills, need advice on dating and relationships, a partner to exercise with, or other types of guidance. Mentors offer advice on self-care, and use their knowledge and personal experience to empower members in becoming more active, happy, healthy, expressive, independent and comfortable with themselves. Meet the program’s manager, here.

A number of ICS staff members have a disability, are on Medicaid, and use other important public benefits. Many people with disabilities want to work but fear losing essential benefits. An ICS Independent Living Associate can help members who want to work navigate the requirements of maintaining benefits while employed. They can also provide employment coaching and referrals to services that help people with disabilities find meaningful employment. See one member’s story, here.

For 20 years, ICS has fought for the rights of people with disabilities and the services they need in order to be independent. Our work and many of our programs are the direct result of leaders with disabilities who were powerful advocates in their own right. Also, our Co-President, Regina Estela, serves on the New York City Human Rights Commission, which helps people with disabilities when they face discrimination.

If you have MS, you know how unpredictable it can be. At ICS, we understand how MS can make it hard to lead the life you want, so we work with members to help them stay independent. Learn more about how we help members with MS stay as active and healthy as possible with disability-expert services and in coordination with New York’s specialized MS centers.

For 20 years, ICS has offered a wide range of free art and social programs, exercise programs, support groups and special events in our fully accessible member centers. With our centers closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are offering workshops and classes online until we are able to welcome members back to in-person programming in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Meanwhile, you can sample some recent online workshops here.

ICS has strong relationships with medical providers who understand the needs of people with disabilities and who ICS has trained to offer disability competent care. We have also led the fight for disability competent women’s health services, which are available to all ICS members who need them.

For someone with a disability, a hospital stay can lead to complications including dangerous infections or pressure wounds. Even worse, it can start a downward spiral that pushes someone with a disability out of the community and into an institution. ICS is dedicated to keeping members healthy, at home, in their community. When an ICS member is hospitalized, we receive an automatic alert so that we can intervene early to help make sure—when they are ready to leave the hospital— that they get home safely. Learn more about these services here. See how we worked to get one member out of a nursing home and back to her life.

ICS practices member-centered care, which means our members and their families and caregivers are in the driver’s seat. We work as a team to create a plan of care, based on the needs and life goals of the member.