Managing Cases, Tracking Outcomes

Have you ever been lost in a forest or seen someone in a movie where they walk for hours and miles only to realize they have walked in a giant circle? Movement does not always equal progress. Once, I was lost with a group of friends in two cars that got separated in Nürnberg, Germany. There were so many one-way streets, and GPS wasn’t a thing back then. We wasted a day trying to get out and had to spend another night to get our bearings.

Knowing where you are going and how to get there is essential to progress.

I’ve never done a cross-country trip, but I can’t imagine setting out for that extensive journey without a plan. Vacation planning has a wide range of approaches. One end of the continuum is a fully mapped-out vacation with every minute scheduled. The far opposite end of planning is an “unplanned” vacation of simply letting every moment happen as it emerges. Even the unplanned usually at least has a destination.

The more distant the journey, the more details that can be mapped and planned, the more grueling that work can be. Of course, “grueling” is not a word the major vacation planner would use. For them, it can be a joy to squeeze out all the good to be experienced. There is a determination to leave nothing to chance or on the table!

I think you will agree that case management is not a vacation, particularly if the case has an abundance of details. However, like a vacation, the desired destination does matter. A lack of a clear destination can make the management experience worse.

One scenario involves managing available resources and the neighbors who receive them once a month or yearly. When the resources are gone, the line stops until next month. Then, you see the same people in line when the appropriate date rolls around. Sound familiar?

Now, how do you respond to that cyclical pattern? One possibility is “Gotcha!” Is that response a catch as a guard responding to abuse of resources or as a catch in a safety net? Even with a safety net, is it becoming a hammock, or is it a way to safely catch and stand your neighbor back up to empower forward? There is also an “It is what it is” response that can be a perspective created from years of this work. This perception leads to action controlled by the resource; “We give what we can give as long as we’ve got what we’ve got.”

Consider some patterns of movement…

Pendulum, a back-and-forth movement.
Cyclical, a round and round movement.
Decrease, downward movement.
Increase, an upward movement.

These movements create outcomes, but they are also outcomes in themselves. A decrease is terrific for high school dropout rates, but it’s not helpful for income reduction. An increase is empowering for employment levels, but it is not desirable for the cost of housing. Pendulum and cyclical movements are like being lost in the forest or desert and can be depressive. Movement does not necessarily equal progress.

If you were to look over the past three years, what would be the story and pattern of the people and community with whom you work? Are you satisfied with what you see? Do you find yourself wishing for significantly better or completely different results? Do you have a way to measure your results? Are you able to run reports on your case details so that you can update your approaches or create new ones? How does your collaboration with others in service of your community measure up?

This blog focuses on the power of an outcomes vision and the need for quality means to track progress. It would be easy to get lost in a discussion about outcomes because there is so much we can’t determine. To help keep this focused, let’s look at outcomes specific to assistance provided in human services and community development efforts.

Desired outcomes happen with intention.
Life happens even if it’s not on purpose. I don’t intend to become homeless, but it can be an outcome of job loss or skyrocketing rent costs, which I don’t control. Those losses and increases have outcomes as well. Homelessness can become cyclical and eventually chronic. Not wanting that outcome changes the intentions of the actions that follow. Housing and resource stability becomes the intent.

When I encounter barriers, I always ask, “What CAN I do? What CAN they do? What CAN we do?” Unless “can’t” has been significantly proven, I don’t believe it. For instance, even with the growing affordable and accessible housing challenges, we CAN do something.

For instance, we/I can create a task force (not a complaint vortex of non-action!) made up of people with experience, knowledge, wisdom, answers, influence, access, and authority to solve problems related to this housing issue collaboratively. You take the problem on, intending to change the outcomes.

The same holds for working with individuals and families on their journey to a life of strength and wholeness. Is human service not at its best when we help people live their best lives with consistency and stability? Pursue those results with great intention and set the assessments, shared goals, and means of tracking all that information to foster the desired outcomes. Tracking this work helps you see how your clients are doing over time and how you are doing with your help. Is your help helping?

For the task force mentioned above, we use data collected through shared case management and other avenues to inform the work and support our solutions. I’ll provide more details below about the HIPAA-compliant technology that empowers this shared case management.

In another strategy for helping struggling families, the intake and assessment information collected, followed by the outcome goals established and tracked, will tell us the stories of these families. Story details are the outcomes that inform goal-setting to produce new outcomes.

So, what outcomes do you desire to see with the neighbors you serve daily? What do they desire?

Purpose helps determine outcomes.
How “on purpose” is your work? Consider a few assessment questions for your work.

• What is your case management vision? What do you see as the ultimate “destination” for the neighbors you serve?
• What are your processes and systems of response leading to that destination?
• What are the current results of the activity you are managing?
• How do you capture the information you need to track the information you need to assess?

As we work with our neighbors in need, creating and tracking shared goals to achieve desired results develops powerful momentum toward targeted accomplishments. The journey from crisis to stability to sustainability involves an abundance of detail, which necessitates clarity, collaboration, and coordination.

Shared case management changes the landscape of outcomes.
The extent of the “shared” idea goes beyond your organization and the client you are serving. Sharing is at its best when it is among all who have a part to play in strengthening and empowering your neighbor. Can any organization or agency do this kind of empowering work alone? It takes the collaboration of others who are also in partnership with our neighbors on their journey to their strongest possible life.

The ultimate in shared case management is the ability to work with shared clients and see the progress each one’s work fosters. It goes beyond tracking and managing resources. We can also learn how each of us working with the same person or family can bring our particular capacities to the empowerment plans and strategies.

If you can see details of my work with a family and I can see yours, there is shared support and accountability for that family. Neither of us is bearing the entire load. Our support of one another becomes exponential support for the people we serve together.[i] CharityTracker helps foster communities working together for this desired good. We can assume less when we create avenues to learn more. Technology can help us when we intentionally set it up to tell an accurate and complete story.

CharityTracker is a cloud-based HIPAA-compliant platform that streamlines client intake processes and maximizes community resources. Way more than that, it can serve as a shared case management database, empowering collaborative work among organizations and agencies to strengthen their community.[ii]

Resource use efficiency is one layer of community impact and is one use of CharityTracker. However, there is an abundance more to what this tool can measure. Coordinating and tracking collaborative support systems and shared goals for outcomes is much simpler within a shared case management database. We work with the same people, so why not with the same information?

Beyond the management and tracking is the story this information tells us. We can know where a person or family has been, where they are, and where they desire to go in their life trajectory. Having the details of that journey as it is happening helps inform each decision and goal, leading to the desired progress.

Doing this work well matters because every life matters. Let’s serve as informed as possible, assuming less and helping more.

Action Points

• Start using CharityTracker. Click here for a demo.
• “Outcomes” is an option within established Client Cases in the Plus and Pro versions of CharityTracker. It is located in the navigation bar on the right.
• If you use “Outcomes” and need additions to your options (See examples below), discuss those additions with your CharityTracker network administrator. Find “Contact Admin” in the top right corner of your CharityTracker.
• Establish partnerships with organizations, churches, and agencies in your area to develop collaborative approaches to human services that lead to growth outcomes. Then, together, utilize CharityTracker's Outcomes feature.
• Begin working with your clients to establish desired and shared goals for which you will partner.
• Watch some training on How to Use Outcomes in CharityTracker.
  
  

[i] https://www.charitytracker.com/en/blog/blog/power-of-together
[ii] https://www.charitytracker.com/

Do you desire to strengthen your CharityTracker or OasisInsight network to new levels of collaboration and impact? Reach out to Chuck today to schedule your conversation: chuck@simonsolutions.com. 

Dr. Chuck Coward serves as Community Impact Specialist for Simon Solutions, Inc. Chuck has invested over 35 years in fostering human and community development from a variety of places and roles, including as a pastor, non-profit Executive Director, Director of Development, businessman, consultant, university professor, The Struggle Coach, and the founder of Entrusted Foundation. Serving to make people and communities stronger is his great passion. Chuck is the proud husband to Anita, dad to four, and granddaddy to eight.