Welcome to Unit 3! Referrals and Coordination of Services Professor Craig Owens, LCSW (Prof C!) Welcome to Unit 3! Referrals and Coordination of Services Professor Craig Owens, LCSW

Seminar Agenda Review last week; apply the learning! Referrals and Ethics Case Study – Time to Practice! Looking ahead – Unit 3 Project Questions?

Last week we discussed how to approach a client in crisis and the first things we should do when we arrive on the scene. Briefly describe one new thing you learned in that discussion that you plan to apply in your career.

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. Do you see examples of this in your community?

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. What are some of the ways you can create and update your referral information for clients?

Coordinating referrals Coordinating services for a client can be quite complicated because each client has a unique set of needs. For example 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. As human service workers, how can we help our clients coordinate services?

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. What are some ways to evaluate referrals?

Case Study Page 1of 5 Scenario: You are working as a domestic violence intake counselor for a private non-profit shelter in a city. Due to the sensitive nature of domestic violence situations, the location of your shelter is confidential, and all information about clients is kept secret. One morning while conducting an intake appointment, a client tells you that she is feeling depressed and has been treated for depression in the past. She says that she needs medication and really needs it soon.

Case Study Page 2 of 5 Your session with her is interrupted by the family specialist who needs the client to come and comfort her son who will not stop crying. In her absence, you decide to begin working on service coordination for the client. You know that the client has not signed consent forms yet, but this should not be a problem as you are sure that she will when she returns to your office. You call the free medical clinic where most of your agency’s clients are referred. The receptionist is someone who you know well and is the point of contact for the clinic, so you feel comfortable divulging your client’s situation. When you finish talking, the receptionist tells you that she knows the client well and would make the appointment. In the meantime, she would send someone over with the medication that the client usually takes.

Case Study Page 3 of 5 Feeling pleased with yourself, you tell the client all of this when she returns from taking care of her son. As you tell her about the call and the medicine, the client’s face turns pale. “My husband works there and will probably be the person sent to deliver the medication, he will kill me!”

Case Study Page 4 of 5 - Ethics? What did this worker do that was unethical? What did the worker do that was illegal? Do ethics and the law always line up perfectly?

Case Study Page 5 of 5 - What would you have done? How should this situation have been handled? What would you have done if you were the intake specialist and a client presented to you with these issues?

Unit 3 Project pg1 of 4 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. Your supervisor has given you a task: If you complete it, you will be promoted to intake specialist.

Unit 3 Project pg2 of 4 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. The plan must include: Guidelines for confidentiality of client information during the referral process Guidelines for identifying barriers to service (e.g., transportation or cost of services) Guidelines for making, tracking, and assessing the success of referrals to each agency A reasonable timeline that specifies the time from first the 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 Guidelines for coordinating all of the referrals to help the client to manage appointments and services

Unit 3 Project pg3 of 4 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). 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. In your body of the paper, use the categories on the previous page as subheadings in any order you choose.

Unit 3 Project pg4 of 4 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

Questions?