The Door of Opportunity is No Wrong Door.
What is No Wrong Door?
By Act No. 726 of the 2003 Regular Legislative Session, the Louisiana Legislature directed the Department of Social Services to develop an integrated service delivery system in order to better meet the needs of our clients. In response to that directive, the No Wrong Door Initiative was created. The goal of this Initiative is to provide the full range of social services in a coordinated and seamless manner. This goal is being supported by the development of the Department’s new web-based computer technology, A Comprehensive Enterprise Social Services System (ACESS), which is client-centric and family-focused, and is designed to streamline business processes. When fully implemented, ACESS will enable shared case planning and management. It is also anticipated that ACESS will be tied to the 211 network. The 211 network is a statewide comprehensive social services telephone referral program, which will allow us to better serve our clients by accessing and appropriately providing more comprehensive information on services available within the community.
How will No Wrong Door help our clients?
The first phase of No Wrong Door will begin in the fall of 2005. In that phase, we plan to use the screening and referral tools within ACESS to serve our clients more holistically. A client’s needs and potential eligibility for services may be determined at the office of any DSS program, community partner, or from a personal computer. Once a determination of potential eligibility has been made, the information provided by the client is forwarded electronically to the appropriate program. Because this information is provided to all programs for which the client may be eligible, the client does not have to supply basic information repeatedly. By offering a single point of entry for our clients, the No Wrong Door model should end the duplication of demographic information.
In later phases of No Wrong door, multi-disciplinary teams will help serve our clients in a more thorough and holistic manner.
How Will No Wrong Door Help DSS?
In Phase One of No Wrong Door, staff will have access to screening and referral information, as well as preliminary demographic information, to assist their clients and enable staff to do their jobs more efficiently.
In later phases of No Wrong Door, DSS staff will be able to serve a client’s needs by improved internal collaboration using new technology. This will result in greater fulfillment for staff members. By streamlining our business processes and working in partnership with community resources, we will build over time an environment of improved access and holistic human services for Louisiana citizens.
How do we determine No Wrong Door’s success?
No Wrong Door will be successful if our clients are safer, healthier, self-sufficient and more productive members of society.
No Wrong Door and its holistic human service approach will be successful if it facilitates clients receiving human services in a more coordinated, expeditious and efficient way.
What will it take for No Wrong Door to succeed?
It is important to the success of No Wrong Door that every staff member—from the front line to the executive team—commits to holistically serving our clients’ needs and achieving positive results. This new approach will provide DSS staff the opportunity to handle cases in a proactive rather than reactive manner in meeting the needs of our clients. We must continue to be visionary, creative and forward thinking in everything we do to meet the needs of our clients.
Ultimately, believing that No Wrong Door is the key to building a stronger Louisiana and opening the Door of Opportunity for our citizens will ensure its success.
The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.
Flora Whittemore |
