System for Constituent Care

Overview. For a class project, we were tasked with assisting the Allegheny County Department of Human Services in helping their constituents better access mental health and substance use care.

Team. I worked with Milena Phan, who contributed with her marketing and writing expertise. Huge thanks to her for collaborating with me on this project! The following materials were produced by me, incorporating team discussion and shared assets.

For full documentation, see the Implementation Guide.

Proposal

We believe that a personal, human approach to treatment is the most effective, and the treatment process should have inherent dignity and hope. To this end, we propose that DHS can step in to become the bridge between constituents and providers, from recommending partners to assisting with transportation, insurance, and childcare needs. At the core, Project Bridge aims to limit the barriers constituents face when accessing care and to do so with respect for the constituent and their unique circumstances.

Process

To understand the landscape, we interviewed field experts, discussed the inner workings of DHS with our client, studied prior DHS interventions, and researched interventions that have improved the lives of people currently struggling with mental health or navigating substance use.

Flowchart of emotions through the system

Administrative Portal

The project duration was about four weeks, and due to the volume of other work, we proposed the portal as a puzzle piece to our larger system proposal.

This portal is solely internal-facing and not accessible to constituents, to limit their interfacing with technology and focus on human-to-human contact. The portal aims to help DHS employees present the most relevant treatment options for the constituent. To do so, they will need key identifying information to find relevant partnered providers, such as:

Age
Health Coverage
The issue for which they are seeking treatment
Address in Allegheny County

among others. To scale such that a caseworker can work with many constituents, or handle a constituent they have never worked with, it would be worthwhile for the system to ask for the relevant information.

This information can be stored in a database for further use. If a constituent loses their recommendations, a new printout or email can be sent quickly. If a constituent is facing a new issue, the case worker can understand a more full picture of the constituent’s life and allow them to better connect with the constituent.