This year a new Family Ties Project staff positionlife planning specialistwas created to enroll families directly without being dependent upon other service providers to complete burdensome paperwork, although the collaborating agencies continued to have responsibility for case finding and identification. The change, outlined in the June 2000 grant application, was made in order to increase enrollments and utilization of services by circumventing problems perceived by staff as due to high turn over and large caseloads of HIV/AIDS services providers. The life planning specialist was hired March 2001 and subsequently enrolled 5 families, 31% of the total enrolled during the reporting period. She receives names and contact information for eligible and interested persons from the collaborating case management agencies. The agencies obtain client consent for contact. The life planning specialist then contacts clients to complete applications, assessments, consent forms and other authorizations and to make referrals to subcontractors and other service providers. This new procedure reduces the burden for the collaborating case managers. During this reporting period, the project also began to accept self-referrals from interested clients.
Immediately following her hiring and orientation to the project,
the life planning specialist contacted the case management agencies
with which the Family Ties Project has agreements to schedule
times for meetings with case managers and supervisors. Through
September 30, 2001 staff conducted a 3-hour enrollment training
session at 5 organizationsBuilding Futures, Family and Medical
Counseling Services, La Clinica del Pueblo, Miriam's House and
Washington Hospital Center. (See Figure 10 on page 30)
A total of 14 case managers completed the training. In addition
to collecting needs assessment data from the training registrants
and using the results to structure the session content, staff
used pre/post training questionnaires to assess the attainment
of learning objectives. The response rate was 93% (13/14). Trainees
assigned a mean rank of 4.5 on a scale of
1 to 5 on both the quality of the training and the trainer's skills.
Other findings specific to the accomplishment of learning objectives
included:
In a meeting of project and subcontractor staff convened January 25, 2002 to review year 5 project data, participants agreed it was too soon to assess the impact of direct enrollment by the life planning specialist. While still dependent upon referrals from the case management agencies, the new strategy appears to be yielding results, which are expected to be more evident in subsequent years. The life planning specialist noted that the quality and completeness of the enrollment information has improved as a result of her involvement. This means that clients can be more effectively referred to and enrolled in specialty services without experiencing delays in service while incomplete forms are returned and additional information sought.