United Services Agency Evaluation Project. Phase I Report

摘要

Five multiservice centers are compared in a report on service integration planned by the United Services Agency (USA) and presented by Temple University. An indepth study of one of the USA centers located at Pittston is organized according to the following format: two sections discuss the roles of the human service planner (HSP) and the generic caseworker or program worker in the USA plan for service integration; the next section examines staff utilization and training and staff inter - relationships; and the last section examines community and agency involvement in affairs of the Pittston Center and other issues regarding the center's community relations. The HSP's in the Pittston Center saw case diagnosis, evaluation, and planning as central to their role. A failure to perform systematic monitoring, an aspect of the HSP role, was noted. The generic caseworker originally was to provide ongoing service delivery, but at Pittston this function is shared by several other staff components. The relationship of different social service programs is compared among five multiservice centers in relation to key questions of service specialization and integration. The degree to which specialized services have become integral components of a single agency is examined for the following services: child welfare, mental health / mental retardation, juvenile probation, income maintenance, and service integration. Service integration may be approached from the perspectives of consumer accountability or administrative convenience. The development of five multiservice centers has helped to fulfill consumer requirements, but developments in design and implementation of USA have been more closely related to organizational rather than to consumer interests. Recommendations are made in the following areas: (1) integrated intake; (2) case management; (3) resource mobilization; (4) ongoing service delivery; (5) staff utilization and training; and (6) advisory boards and committees. Appendices contain a discussion of data collection techniques and instruments used in the case study of the Pittston Multiservice Center.