Establishing a True 'No Wrong Door' Approach to Human Services
GOVERNING: HUMAN SERVICES NEWSLETTER
ISSUE: FEBRUARY 9, 2011
BY: JONATHAN WALTERS
Establishing a True 'No Wrong Door' Approach to Human Services
To reach all their clients, state human services officials say technology and less rules and regulations are key.
The recurring theme at Governing's Outlook in the States and Localities conference this year was the continuing grim fiscal picture for governments. Pie chart after bar graph after line all graph illustrated the troubling trends that governments are seeing across the board in revenues versus service demands.
While there was some mildly encouraging news about the (slow) recovery of state revenues, the parade of presenters clicking through gloom-and-doom PowerPoint presentations reinforced that the serious fiscal pain would likely last well into 2013 and possibly beyond.
Yet there was a clear subtext to the two-day proceedings that couldn't be ignored, one that highlights the caliber and quality of the best that local, state and federal government leadership has to offer today. That subtext was actually on full display during a conference panel that I moderated on delivering human and health services in these challenging fiscal times.
The posture of the panelists was an interesting and inspiring combination of resignation and determination: Yes, times are tough, but we have a job to do and we're going do everything in our power to get that job done regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
In fact, what the panelists talked most about was the necessity for operating in the most efficient manner possible these days, a theme that took the "no wrong door" concept of delivering health and human services, and extended it beyond a single office or department.
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