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The History and Structure of Case Load Analysis in Ohio

 I pulled together some of the material that has been written for different sources that you may be able to pull from for some of the history.

Caseload Analysis begins with assisting agency supervisors and administrators in determining their demand for services and the capacity to provide services to children and families. The training for administrators and supervisors begins with principles and components of family-centered, strength-based practice followed by a demonstration workshop utilizing actual agency cases to demonstrate the principles and components and projects the agency demand versus capacity. This is followed by a training on comprehensive family assessments including the use of genograms and ecomaps. Ongoing on-site consultation and technical assistance is then provided on an ongoing basis to assist agencies in their implementation. This is tailored to fit each agency’s individual needs.

Implementing CLA has provided the participating agencies with the motivation to look at agency structure and determine how to allocate agency resources to best serve the children and families in need. Caseload Analysis focuses on family-centered, strength-based practice and encourages timely permanency for all children. This has promoted an emphasis on providing intensive, up-front services resulting in a reduction in caseload sizes. With the implementation of ASFA, CLA is seen as the perfect fit to assist counties in meeting the new mandates to help families and children to assure the safety, permanency and well-being of children in as timely manner as possible.

CLA is a supervisor driven system and will provide management data regarding the agencies capacity, workload and the types of cases served not available previously.

The 14 IV-E Demonstration Project counties (ProtectOHIO) elected to include the implementation of CLA as one of the Core Strategies to be utilized to achieve the goals of the project. Of the 14 agencies, 7 committed to beginning the process of implementation of the project.

Training for CLA began in December 1997 and has now been completed for seven of the participating agencies. Another agency is scheduled to begin training in October 1998. All agencies are in different stages of implementation of the process. Agencies implementation schedules vary according to specific agency dynamics and influences both from within the agency and outside sources, most of which cannot be controlled.

A three day retreat for agencies that had begun the process or had expressed interest in beginning CLA was held in May 1998. Several national experts in the child welfare field addressed the participants. Agencies were given the opportunity to develop a work plan for themselves on how they would implement CLA and the change in practice into their agencies while acknowledging the barriers and planning to overcome them.

An Implementation Leadership Forum (ILF) has been organized to serve as a decision making body and to offer guidance to other agencies for the successful implementation of this strategy. The ILF has drafted a vision, strategies and goals specific to CLA that continues those of ProtectOHIO. The need to evaluate the effectiveness of CLA has been a focal point of the ILF. To meet this need, a process overview has been designed and software is being developed to track the process. (See attachment)

9/30/98

Caseload Analysis focuses on family-centered, strength-based practice and encourages timely permanency for all children. Implementing CLA has provided the participating agencies with the motivation to look at agency structure and determine how to allocate agency resources to best serve the children and families in need. This has promoted an emphasis on providing intensive, up-front services resulting in a reduction in caseload sizes. With the implementation of ASFA and HB 484, CLA is seen as the perfect fit to assist counties in meeting the new mandates to help families and children to assure the safety, permanency and well-being of children in as timely manner as possible.

A three day retreat was held May 26-28, 1999. Particpants included staff from the eight counties who had implemented CLA and the rest of the ProtectOHIO counties. The focus of the retreat was on family Group Decision Making and was conducted by national experts. A presentaion by a represetative of Missouri CPS on their multi-track assessment system was also well received. It allowed the agencies who had been working with CLA for over a year to refocus and reenergize and the other agencies to hear what these agencies have been doing in child welfare practice.

9/30/99

Originally, the project was set up to include a consultant to train agencies with the assistance of ODHS CPS staff. Then the consultant would mentor ODHS CPS and District office staff to provide ongoing consultation and technical assistance, as needed. CPS staff assisted in the training of most of the initial agencies and participated in the beginning consultations. District office staff participated in most of the trainings and attended some of the consultations. The plan was also to develop "experts" from the initial counties to assist other counties who would be trained in the next wave. This was the approach used in risk assessment.

The first committee was the ProtectOHIO Program committee. The next involvement was with IHS through the OCWTP to make any needed revisions to the already developed curriculum to incorporate the training into the curriculums offered thorough the RTCs. This included representatives from ODHS, IHS and counties. Out of this committee a subcommittee was developed to develop a curriculum for the up-front presentation to agencies and the initial workload management piece. ODHS central and district staff comprised this committee. Currently, the Implementation Leadership Forum, comprised of agencies implementing CLA with ODHS support, meets monthly.

June Lloyd developed the original concept which was further developed for Ohio. There was an interagency agreement between the HHS regions for her participation.

6/99

Early Workplan - From December 1997