Helping Social Services Gain Traction
Anyone who has driven on ice understands the value of traction; without it, wheels spin, the vehicle is hard to control, and sliding off the road can get real – fast. A layer of ice removes friction, disconnecting everyone from the system of roads people need to go where they need to safely.
The network of roads solves and prevents problems, but they also create opportunities with real economic impact. We can do the same for social health.
Instinctively, people see roads as symbols of hope and paths to a better future. We need to recognize social health is a critical road to opportunity and community success.
Traction comes from having something solid to hold onto, with enough friction to prevent slippage.
Structured collaboration builds social system traction. Shared data gives us a good traction point, indicating the client's current situation. Shared social service values, agreements, and processes help the rubber meet the road without slippage; the client stays in control and inches forward toward their destination.
The following sketch created from actual events provides a conceptual map. It begins on the left with a family living on the street, where the children have been removed for their safety.
The family is motivated and enters the community network through a participating micro-shelter program. After two months, they qualify for a transitional living program that takes over management using the same network of services and interventional care plan, updated for the new circumstances with around-the-clock navigational support. After two months, they qualify for a transitional living program that takes over management, using the same network of services and interventional care, updated for the new circumstances.
The children are returned because the client can now demonstrate stability, and over the following months, control of the care plan shifts into third gear as momentum increases. With additional support and providers all collaborating (and seeing the same dashboard of key indicators), the client reaches highway speed.
All this movement is tracked with periodic testing, evaluation, and the basic pit stops to help keep momentum in the desired direction. After the intervention, these same assessments will follow the client to ensure the ultimate destination is reached.
It'd be helpful if this whole effort to bring families back from a perilous spinout took on the efficiency of an INDYCAR race team. A big part of the success depends on integrating the organizational infrastructure that connects all the providers, maintains its focus on the client, and provides smooth gear shifts as the client gains traction. All of this is tracked with periodic standardized assessments to measure the improvement. After the intervention, these same assessments will follow the client to determine the sustainability of the progress achieved.
Integrating infrastructure that tracks and supports all agencies and service providers and maintains a single focus on the client, whether a person or a family, is how we begin to change the conversation.
Shared, collaborative case management is also efficient and often more enjoyable. Adaptability is another hallmark of a high-functioning network operation, able to respond quickly to slippage by adding traction to a second, third, and fourth wheel.
In the process of adding traction for those who've lost control, communities can realize actual economic gain because emergency care is always more expensive than preventive care. To end with the same metaphor: we can significantly reduce the number of wrecks being pulled out of the ditch and apply the savings to new amenities on the highway of life, things we can all enjoy.
Those of us on the pit crew can move to a place where we work together more effectively, learn what works, and share that knowledge. There is more than enough work to do.
Along the way, we will rediscover the shared hope and optimism that brought us to this work.