Human Service Integration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Human Service Integration - Essay Example Funding streams and federal mandates contribute to the confront of integrating services by pulling a human service agency in diverse directions. As a result, "Ms. Jones" walks into a human service agency office a whole person and the system virtually breaks her and her family into pieces in order to serve her, consistent with the structure of most human service programs. (Reitman, 2005) Despite and perhaps because of these challenges, we know human service agencies can no longer afford not to integrate services. The lives of children and families literally rely on the extent to which human service agencies integrate services for better performance. Although service integration is well established in theory, making it an operational reality has remained elusive over the last 20 years, but not for lack of effort or creativity some agencies have made phenomenal progress toward service integration, despite complex and ever-changing political, economic, demographic, and technological conditions. One-stop shops have emerged, joint planning has been initiated, co-location of two or more service agencys staff has been implemented, standard initial screening tools and eligibility processes have been established, and the merging of data systems is ongoing in many jurisdictions. While there have been successful pilot programs over the years, there have been few broadly implemented system changes that have brought service integration pilot programs "to scale." Historically, pilot programs and studies of best practices have not been widely replicated, not because they were "bad" strategies, but rather a critical component was missing: high -performance leadership. (Atkinson, 1999) Although we traditionally associate "leadership" with the work of the chief executive, the missing component in successfully integrating services is leadership work performed throughout the agency. An agency with sufficient leadership capacity to