Last week DCAYA and a number of fellow advocates met with
Mayor Gray, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services BB Otero to discuss current
priorities for the Health and Human Services cluster, as well as possible uses
for current and future revenue surplus and the District’s sequestration plan. Our
friends over at DCFPI already have a great explanation of what’s going on with this year’s revenue surplus and with sequestration up on their blog, so we
thought we would report out on what was said about the plan for the agencies
overseen by Deputy Mayor Otero.
To begin, the Mayor’s plan for Health and Human Services for
the rest of 2013 and 2014 has two main goals: 1) Create Integrated Services and
2) Improve the Quality of Practice. Both
of these things are great areas to focus on given that this cluster includes
agencies that serve some of the District’s neediest populations (DHS, CFSA,
DYRS, DMH, DOH), but what do “integrated services” and “improved quality”
really mean? Keep reading for some insight!
1) Integrated Services:
This is something we hear a lot
about but do not necessarily see very often from our government partners, which
is troubling, but hopefully rectifiable. In last week’s blog post we talked a little bit about the need to look at homeless youth across a continuum of programming and services, and this is exactly what “integrating services” means.
We need systems and supports that
recognize when individuals and families are at a high-risk for a negative
outcome (like homelessness or extended unemployment) and intervene proactively
so negative outcomes do not begin to snowball. Our current system is one in
which individuals and families have to hit rock bottom to obtain support (e.g.
homeless families at DC General) and this system is not doing the District any
favors.
Mayor Gray’s plan for integrating services also envisions a
system where we do not punish individuals or families who seek support by forcing
them to navigate a tangled web of enrollment and case management that makes
sense to almost no one. A major goal within the plan is that families or
individuals involved with multiple services or agencies (TANF, CFSA, DHS, DYRS)
will be able to work with a single service team that supports them in
navigating each of these systems and their respective requirements/case plans. While
shared intake and case management will take a lot of time and planning to
implement, it is assuredly a step in the right direction and we applaud the
administration’s dedication to easing the burden we place on those in need.
2) The Focus on Quality of Practice: The
term quality may seem straight forward, but it leaves a surprising amount open
to interpretation. In Mayor Gray’s terms though, improving the quality of
practice at District agencies means a few things. First it means that there
will be a renewed focus on staffing quality and professional development for
frontline workers (the ones who actually deal with people). For instance, the
positive youth development framework and advancing youth development training
offered by CYITC are currently being conducted with agencies like MPD School
Resource Officers. Expanding this training to include staff at DPR, CFSA and
DHS will ensure that staff is equipped with the skills needed to work
effectively with youth.
The focus on quality improvement also extends to data
collection. Efforts are currently underway in agencies to developing internal
dashboards with agreed upon performance metrics that identify if/when interventions
are having a positive impact. This effort is actually very similar to what is going on in the education world with SLED. Lastly, we all know that quality is
not just the responsibility of individual agencies but also those they chose to
partner with. As a part of quality improvement for agency partners and
contractors, agencies are now working with Deputy Mayor Otero to reexamine contracts
with external vendors to ensure that previously awarded contracts are appropriate for the needs of the agency and that contracts are actually leading to
intended agency goals.
Given these two focus
areas, Mayor Gray and Deputy Mayor Otero should be proud of the plans they have
put forward to strengthen the city’s service provision. Simplifying access,
prioritizing prevention and elevating quality are all interventions that will
have a direct and meaningful impact if both our District agencies and their
partners are ready and willing to implement true reforms. It is important to
recognize though, that plans are just that and it is the responsibility of the
advocacy community (as well as our agency partners) to ensure that these plans
turn into action.
This blog post was
written by DCAYA’s Executive Director Maggie Riden.
For more information
on DCAYA and our policy/advocacy work, please visit our website.
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