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News & Updates April 2006 |
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System
Update Puts Children Ahead of Paperwork As Delaware revamps its ten-year-old child welfare management information system, FACTS (Family & Child Tracking System), CFS faculty members are helping to ensure the state incorporates Systems of Care (SOC) values and principles. Since FACTS originated in 1993, the states’ goal has been to develop a system that enables case managers in child protective, juvenile justice and children's mental health services divisions to access and share information about the children they are serving, both supporting their work and promoting service integration. The system includes data on intake and assessment, clinical services management, provider contracts, electronic invoicing, Medicaid claims and more. In Fall 2005, the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF) turned to SOC to help frame their service integration and the MIS system supporting it. The SOC approach promotes a comprehensive array of community based, culturally competent services where the needs of the child and family dictate the types and mix of services provided. Systems of care also call for service integration, linking child-serving agencies and programs, and their mechanisms for planning, developing, and coordinating services. Walter R. McDonald Associates (WRMA; the lead agency for national evaluation of systems of care grant sites) contracted with DSCYF to assist in design of a service delivery infrastructure based on SOC strategies for public agencies statewide. WRMA subsequently subcontracted with CFS’s Mary Armstrong,Ph.D. and Mary Ann Kershaw for their expertise on SOC values and principles, which will be applied throughout the tracking system, including areas of Medicaid billing, institutional billing, and the child and family assistance process. Armstrong and Kershaw conducted a number of meetings last fall with state officials and system developers. They reviewed the more than 600 task requirements of FACTS, and helped to develop ways in which the complex system could apply SOC values and principles throughout. Mary Armstrong stressed, “It was important that all areas in the system, especially assessment, service planning and implementation followed guidelines to ensure that high-quality care is provided for children and youth in ways that lead to improvements in service delivery for these children and their families.” Improvements will help eliminate steps in the client service process, speed up communications between team members through automation of workflow, and help workers complete tasks in a more timely manner. “Ultimately,” added Armstrong, “the improvements will include time savings that will allow workers to focus more on the children they serve instead of paperwork.” |
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