Process Perspectives:

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Process Perspectives

• Chronicling Ohios Alternative Response
• Pilot Experience

Looking Back..and Forward
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Objectives for Today

• Describe the purpose and process of chronicling
  the pilot experience
• Present qualitative findings of the chronicling
  effort
• Discuss implications for the future and ongoing
  systems change

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Why Chronicle?

• If you cant describe
• what you are doing as a process,
• you dont know what youre doing.
• -W. Edwards Deming

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The Role of the Chronicler

• Documenting the Process, Experiences the
• Voices of Participants
• Historical Context
• Milestone events
• Planning and implementation processes
• Challenges or barriers
• Successes
• Lessons learned
• Implications for the future

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The Chronicling Process

• Comprehensive information gathering process
• Events
• Pre-pilot regional forums
• Design Workgroup Leadership Council meetings
• Task Team meetings through Design Phase
• Worker and Supervisor meetings
• AR training opportunities

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The Chronicling Process

• Comprehensive information gathering process
• Interviews
• County Stakeholders (Workers, Supervisors, and
  Administrators)
• State Stakeholders
• AIM Team
• Judicial System Stakeholders

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Final Report Content

• Process Timeline
• Historical Context of the AR Pilot
• Pre-Pilot Planning
• Planning and Design Phase
• Implementation Readiness
• Implementation
• Process Milestones
• Successes
• Challenges
• Lessons Learned
• Family Stories
• Conclusions and Recommendations

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Capturing the Voice of Experience

• Its been a great opportunity to learn how
  system change works its been a good process.
  
• -Franklin County Administrator

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Key Lessons Prior to Implementation

• State and County Partnership Building
  relationships and establishing a parallel process
• Process Shift Collaborative pilot design
• Context Its all about expectations
• This is the first time in a long time that the
  state and counties are sitting at the table and
  making decisions together.
• -Trumbull County Design Workgroup Member

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Key Lessons Prior to Implementation

• An imperfect process We didnt know what we
  didnt know.
• Challenges around timing
• The lens of experience changes perspective
• A fundamental touchstone
• How is this good for families?

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Design Phase Successes

• Bringing the ten counties together with
  discussion and voting that resulted in looking at
  what is best for families and children.
• - Clark County Design Workgroup Member
• Creating a broad enough structure that leaves
  room for some county creativity.
• -Fairfield County Design Workgroup Member
• Individual transformations at both state and
  county levels creating more of a partnership
  with counties.
• -ODJFS Design Workgroup Member
• Relationship building.
• -Licking County Design Workgroup Member

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County Implementation Workflow Staffing

• One Worker/One Family Approach (Fairfield, Lucas,
  Ross, and Trumbull)
• Separated Intake and Ongoing Units
• (Franklin)
• Blended model/Short-term Services Focus (Clark,
  Greene, Guernsey, Licking, and Tuscarawas)
• Very few cases in these two counties ultimately
  transferred to another worker for ongoing
  services.

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County Implementation

• Other county-specific implementation decisions
• Pathway assignment
• Decision making procedures
• Use of discretionary considerations
• Case initiation procedures
• Phone contact
• Letter
• Face-to-face
• Contact timeframes

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Implementation Successes
AR has changed the way we gather information and
look at strengths. -Trumbull County AR Worker,
February 2010
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Implementation Successes

• Partnership with Families
• Removal of labels
• Changes in approach to families
• More time to build rapport
• Focus on family-driven services
• The Family Service Plan helps workers think
  differently about collaborating with families.
• -Clark County Worker, July 2009

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Implementation Successes

• Meeting family identified needs with
• flexible funding
• Hard services to meet basic needs
• Services that contribute to long-term safety or
  family stability that would not otherwise be
  accessible, e.g.
• Education
• Job training and/or licensure
• Transportation

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Implementation Successes

• Partnerships in the Community
• Changing perceptions of community partners over
  time
• Opening new avenues of collaboration with
  traditional and non-traditional partners
• Building workers knowledge of community
  resources and other service systems
• We have found that if you ask for help from your
  community, you will receive it. Through the AR
  initiative, we have expanded our view of
  community partners.
• -Ross County Supervisor, September 2009

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Implementation Successes

• Intra-Agency Partnership New Ways of Doing
  Business
• Coaching and clinical consultation
• Internal partnership among units
• We discuss and present strengths more, and we
  discuss cases in a more respectful way.
• -Trumbull County Worker, February 2010
• Workers have progressed in their depth of
  communication and understanding of families.
• -Fairfield County Worker, February 2010

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Shared Challenges

• It was overwhelming in the beginning with mixed
  caseloads. TR cases would have to take priority
  over AR. We no longer have mixed caseloads unless
  there is a track change.
• -Greene County AR Worker,
• February 2010

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Shared Challenges

• Caseload Demands
• Size of caseloads needs to be controlled
• Dual AR/TR caseloads
• SACWIS
• Staff Relationships Promoting system change in a
  manner sensitive to TR workers
• Supervisory Training Support
• Economic Impact

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Shared Challenges

• Developing new skill sets Assessment
  Intervention
• Evolving practice challenges Arent we already
  doing this?
• Unintended practice consequences of tying funds
  to completion of the Family Service Plan
• We needed to step back and look at how we
  defined AR. It is not dependent on services or
  resources it is about openness to having
  families drive the process.
• -Franklin County Supervisor, February 2010

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Lessons Learned

• AR is the first thing that Ive seen come down
  the pike that has successfully moved us away from
  incident-driven thinking. AR reinforces
  strengths-based practice over time.
• -Greene County Administrator, February 2010

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Lessons Learned

• Among the ten pilot counties, there is broad
  agreement that AR has resulted in positive
  outcomes for families.
• There has been a progressive shift in focus from
  procedures and system requirements to
  family-driven interventions and an emphasis on
  clinical practice skills.
• Hands-on experiences and cross-jurisdictional
  learning opportunities, such as coaching,
  immersion experiences, and group case
  consultation, have been instrumental in
  facilitating this shift.

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Lessons Learned

• Hands-on consultation was one of the most
  beneficial things we received through the pilot
  one of the most memorable learning experiences
  was having Russ come to our county.
• -Franklin County Supervisor, February 2010

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Lessons Learned

• Ongoing communication with community partners is
  important.
• Variations in implementation decisions among
  counties contributed to disparate senses of the
  degree of change achieved among the counties.
• Leadership is critical!
• System change is a developmental process and
  takes time.

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Words of Wisdom

• Even though I said two years ago, This is what
  I do, it truly is a different approach.
• - Licking County Worker
• During training, its difficult to understand
  how AR is different. You need to see the
  differences in practice and how system change
  impacts family response.
• Tuscarawas County Supervisor

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Words of Wisdom

• Pointing out family strengths and allowing them
  to be the experts has changed the perspective of
  families. Families are more likely to come to us
  for help, rather than wait until theyre in
  crisis because theyre afraid.
• -Ross County Worker
• No matter what perspective individuals came from
  administrator, policy, or front line staff
  its been a learning experience. Everybody had
  something to learn and something to improve
  upon.
• -ODJFS

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Questions?
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From Family to Employee Engagement
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What Is a MCWIC?

• Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center
• Part of federal Training and Technical Assistance
  Network
• Three-and-half-year grant
• Support
• Financial
• Access to federal resources
• Outside consultants
• Center support

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Elements

• Formal Assessment of organizational culture
  climate
• Development and installation of new technical
  assistance model
• Rule review
• Implementation of organizational structure and
  function to support model
• Ongoing fidelity and monitoring

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Where Do We Start?

• Mission and Vision
• Advisory Committee
• Operationalize mission and vision
• Coordinate communication
• Provide guidance to task teams
• Provide input and recommendations on the
  implementation progress to ODJFS Leadership Group
• Regional Forum

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Take up the Cause!