Welcome to Unit 3! Referrals and Coordination of Services Robin Cooper, LCSW

ANNOUNCEMENTS Tech issues….log out and back in HS club- see course home page Unit 1 is graded- review grade book Unit 3 project due this Tuesday by midnight

Unit 3 To-Do-List Complete reading- Please review your notes from the HN200 and HN205 courses. Participate in discussion board Attend seminar Unit 3 project

Unit 3 Project HN299 Unit 3 Project To prepare for this project, make a list of three of the most prevalent social problems experienced by people who live in your town or city (e.g., unemployment). Then, make a list of the types of services that someone who has these problems might need. Think about the information that you discussed in the Survey of Social Problems class. Then, using information from your Organizational Theory in Human Services, create a plan that solves the problems described in the following scenario.

Unit 3 Project Scenario: You are working as a community resource coordinator at a Workforce One Stop. Your primary duties are to attend community fairs and events to advertise the services provided at the One Stop (usually job training, food stamps, cash assistance, housing, and referrals to substance abuse and mental health treatment). Further, you collect information about your town’s agencies, for profit and not for profit, and provide updated information to the intake specialists and employment counselors who work directly with clients.

Unit 3 Project Your supervisor has given you a task: If you complete it, you will be promoted to intake specialist. You are excited because you want a promotion and raise, but the task seems impossible. In the past, you have done a great job of updating the agency’s database, but case managers and counselors were still not able to get clients connected with services effectively.

Unit 3 Project The task: You are to create a coordination of services plan, a plan to update and connect clients in your agency with appropriate services offered by other agencies.

Unit 3 Project The plan must include: 1. guidelines for confidentiality of client information during the referral process 2. guidelines for identifying barriers to service (e.g., transportation or cost of services) 3. guidelines for making, tracking, and assessing the success of referrals to each agency

Unit 3 Project 4. a reasonable timeline that specifies the time from first meeting with the client to the time that the referral is made to the amount of time for checking with the client or agency to assess the effectiveness of the referral

Unit 3 Project 5. guidelines for coordinating all of the referrals to help the client to manage appointments and services Assume that your clients will need access to substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, and job training services. Be as creative as possible when creating your plan; you may add a chart with your time line or a graphic that shows how someone in your agency might coordinate the clients’ services (e.g., flow chart).

Unit 3 Project Be specific and brief as you write your plan. Think of it as a guide to be used by case managers and other specialists in your agency.

Unit 3 Project In your body of the paper, use the following subheadings in any order: Guidelines for Confidentiality Guidelines for Making and Evaluating Referrals Identifying Barriers Timeline for Referrals Guidelines for Coordinating Services

Unit 3 Project This project should be between 800 and 1000 words, not including your title and reference pages (only if you choose to use references, these are not required). You are required to give credit to the sources you use and to use proper APA formatting. Refer to the APA Quick Reference for help with APA, or refer to the Kaplan Writing Center or your instructor. Remember that all work must be your own, and plagiarism is not tolerated. Be sure to review the plagiarism policy in your syllabus.

Unit 3 Project Review grading rubric!!!

Unit 3 This week, we explore strategies for coordinating client services to facilitate their progress in meeting treatment or other goals

Community Services Community service offerings vary greatly according to the size of the town or city, the needs of the community, and the funding structure. Local taxes or grant monies often fund agency services. Because there is a limited amount of funds available, many agencies work together to provide a community referral network.

Referrals Those who make referrals for any agency need to understand how the local referral system works. Often, individual agencies create and update a database with the services offered by local agencies and contact names for these programs. Cities provide catalogs with this information. However, as you learned in your classes, services offered (and contact names) change more frequently than catalogs are updated.

Referral Databases Many human service professionals who are in the beginning of their careers will be involved in creating, updating, and/or using referral databases. Making connections with other professionals who work in other agencies helps to facilitate client referrals. Networking!!!

Coordinating referrals Coordinating services for a client can be quite complicated because each client has a unique set of needs. Many people do not realize the daily difficulties that people with needs face when the community lacks adequate public transportation or beds in homeless shelters. Example-What are some needs?

Evaluate Effectiveness As you learned in your other courses, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of your referrals. Connecting a client with the appropriate service inside your agency is easier than connecting him or her with services in an outside agency. Evaluating the effectiveness of referrals is an important and often ignored step in the referral process.

DB- Case Study You are in your second year of working as a family prevention specialist for a mental health agency. Most of your time is spent assisting families who have one or both parents enrolled in one of your agency’s treatment programs. The key purpose of your job is to meet families every few weeks in their home to teach them to use effective communication and family management skills.

DB- Case Study cont… However, lately, you and your coworkers have noticed that the clients need more referrals for substance abuse programs, parenting classes, and welfare services. One family whose members have been your clients for a month now has been unable to work on the prevention program because of their extreme needs.

DB- Case Study cont… This week, you realized that the mother, who is the client of your agency, seemed to be despondent, and the father was drunk. Their three children, ages 2, 4, and 6 told you that they were hungry because they had not eaten that day. You are overwhelmed listening to all of this and then you notice that the lights are out. The father explains that they could not pay the electric company that month.

DB- Case Study cont… After reading this scenario, make a list of all of the services that you think your agency can provide to help the family. Then, make a list of the services that other agencies would have to provide for them. In your post, add the list of services needed and describe the steps that you would take to coordinate these services for the family.

DB- Case Study cont… Would you make a child abuse report because of what you see while at the family’s residence? Support your ideas with a detailed explanation as to why you would or would not make a report.

Questions?