Getting Services to People in Need
Brokering
Three kinds of resource systems.
•Informal [natural] systems
•Formal [membership] systems - membership
in an organization
•Societal resource systems - established
through social legislation and voluntary citizen
action
Giving information and making referrals
• Find out as much as possible about the
exact need
• Find out what the person wants to do
about the need or problem
• Begin to determine who can handle this
request best
• Talk to the consumer, share responsibility
and explain resources that are available.
Procedures for making referrals and
preparing individuals to receive help with
their unmet needs
• Sometimes the solution to an individual’s unmet needs
cannot be met with the current agency and the person
needs to be referred
• out.
• Discuss referral with consumer
• Assess the consumer's ability to contact the resource
• If you are making the contact make certain the
resource can meet the consumer's needs
• Make an appointment
• Insure consumer know the appointment
Barriers
Reaching out to people in your community
• Out reach is locating the people who may
need assistance, identifying the unmet
needs of individuals in the community
and getting that information to those in
need. Many people do not know that
there are resources for them.
• Understand your self and your feelings,
approach individuals openly, try to
understand the person, don't offer help
too quickly, know what you can and
cannot do. Do not promise what you can't
deliver.
Techniques for reaching out in your
community and the importance of followup in reaching out
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Informal discussion with community
Observation
Interview and questionnaires
Contact with staff and other agencies
Consumer Advocating
The need for advocacy- 3 reasons
• The attitude of HS agencies and institutions; rules,
policies, rigidity
• What consumers know and feel about human
services; lack of knowledge of services and
access, powerlessness, politically under
represented
• The wrongs suffered by consumers; wrongs that
they can not right themselves
How to make a decision to advocate:
Look before you leap
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Worker needs to make certain that the complaint,
action, or decision is legitimate; unreasonable
or unjustified demands should not be made on
behalf of the consumer.
Decide whether advocacy is necessary. Have
other avenues been tried? Was it a
misunderstanding on either side?
Before advocating discuss it with the
consumer[s] to insure consumer's informed
consent.
Components of the technique of persuasion
and explore some methods of using
persuasion effectively
• State the problem
• Discuss the problem
• State the action
desired
• Summarize and restate
• Methods of
persuasion:
• Common ground
• Cards on the table
• Blunt assault
• Always be sincere and speak with
conviction
• Look the other person in the eye
• Avoid negative appeals
• Do not do all the talking
• Control your emotions
Mobilizing
• Mobilizing is getting people, organizations,
and or community motivated to engage in
meeting un met needs. Mobilizing might
involve the following tasks:
• Discovering gaps within the
service delivery system and
recommending services to modify
them
• Defining and communicating
specific community needs by
acting as a catalyst for the
formation of self-help groups
• Describing an unmet service need
and proposing a plan to a policy
maker, using the telephone,
personal visits, written
communication, in order to gather
support
• Discussing plans or ideas for new
services with colleagues or lay
individuals and encourage support
of the plans
• Reading local newspapers in order
to determine issues facing current
or potential consumer groups
• Participating in existing
community groups, serving as a
resource and discussing human
services