AG 1992 03 16 - Laserfiche WebLink

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o o less costly to society and to individuals. One dollar spent on prevention saves six dollars in later treatment. Efforts should be undertaken to enhance preventive services. The current human service system is not user friendly. Services are offered in multiple locations which is inconven- ient and confusing for almost all clients. Some clients have difficulty accessing the fragmented services because of lack of public or private transportation, lack of child care facili- ties, and inability to understand where desired services are found. Service agencies are crowded which often prevents the level of confidentiality desired by the client and the ser- vice provider. One method of meliorating future cost, staff and space pressures is to realize the economies of scale that derive from offering as many services as possible at one location. Examples of expected economies of scale from one central lo- cation are having one waiting room, one reception area, one record per client, ease of referral from one service to another, and ease of utilizing a team approach to meet client's needs. Some of the guiding goals for the committee as it considered human service delivery in Cabarrus County were having ser- vices easily accessible to those who need them, having those services needed by clients available to them, providing a high quality of services, and being more proactive in meeting the county's human service needs. B. RECOMMENDATIONS After discussing various models for the provision of human services in Cabarrus County, the Committee agreed to a bold formulation of how it would like to see these services provided in the 21st century. [:~ECOMMENDA TION #1 A. Administration and centralized services provided in a user-friendly "hub" human service facility. B. Other services, which can easily be decen- tralized wo~_~_!d be offered in dedicated space in the schools and senior centers as human services satellites. ~ This recommendation would necessitate viewing designated schools as satellite community service centers with a primary mission of providing education but with a secondary mission of providing space for other human services such as health, mental health, social services, adult education and recreation.