2006 HUD New England Regional HMIS Conference

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2006 HUD New England Regional HMIS Conference
 
April 10, 2006 Campus Center University of
Massachusetts Boston

• Sponsored by the U.S. Department of
• Housing and Urban Development

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Presented by in partnership by
 
The Center for Social Policy atThe University of
Massachusetts Boston,Abt Associates, Inc.,
New England Regional HMIS
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Making the Most of HMIS for Program/Agency
Directors
 
John Yazwinski, Father Bills Place, Quincy,
MA Lynne D. Chapman, Pine Street Inn, Boston, MA

• Sponsored by the U.S. Department of
• Housing and Urban Development

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IV. HMIS Challenges for Program/Agency Directors
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Implementations have not been built to meet
program/ agency needs

• Designed to capture mandated data elements
• Attempt to produce unduplicated count
• Funded by and designed to meet Federal/State
  Policy needs
• Not designed for management of service delivery

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Systems cannot meet all needs

• All agencies are different
• Systems dont focus on the day-to-day work
  (triage, support services, solutions)
• Many agencies are complex with unique
  sub-programs and multiple funding sources

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Systems cannot meet all needs (contd)

• Reporting (back-end) is the most important for
  programs needs to be clearly organized and easy
  to use

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Staffing/Resource Limitations

• Staff in homeless programs often
  unsophisticated/unfamiliar with computers
• Technical resources may not be available in
  smaller programs
• Additional resources for data entry and database
  management have not been allocated

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Staffing/Resource Limitations (contd)

• Mandated systems replaced by funding sources
  staff buy-in and training difficult to maintain
• Data Quality suffers

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Future System Development

• Need to be informed by and responsive to service
  providers
• Require more design input from consumers
• Funding sources and software designers need the
  support of the provider community to make the
  HMIS work

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V. Power of the Data Vision What HMIS can do
for you
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Data is powerful

• Advocacy
• Fund raising
• Program development

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Father Bills Place

• Tracked where people came from
• Examined one years history of discharges from
  state systems of care
• Identified specific institutions and types of
  discharges
• Persuasive in encouraging responsible officials
  to promote change

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Pine Street Inn

• Tracked characteristics of people at intake
  linked to length of stay
• Identified people coming to PSI for reasons other
  than homelessness e.g. access to services
• Able to redirect people to appropriate services
  preserve resources for the homeless
• Develop more than one set of responses at the
  front door

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Outcome Tracking

• Programs/agencies need to produce and document
  outcomes
• Track efforts of individual staff (case managers
  caseload signed up for mainstream resources?)
• Track yearly performance of programs (number
  served, housed, etc.)

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Outcome Tracking (contd)

• Public funders, private foundations and the
  business community want to fund solutions
• Good outcome data can leverage resources

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VI. Is it worth the effort?
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• Yes Data is the only way to educate and inform
  the public
• Potential for enormous benefit to government,
  funders, providers and consumer alike
• Essential to document the results of what you do
  and be able to produce answers quickly
• Demonstrates competence to funders

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For More Information

• Lynne D. Chapman
• Vice President for Programs
• Pine Street Inn
• Lynne.Chapman_at_pinestreetinn.org
• [phone]
• www.pinestreetinn.org