Educators' Resource Center for Youth Sexual Risk Behavior Prevention: Needs Assessment Case Study

NEEDS AND ASSETS ASSESSMENT Case Study

Using Data to Improve Mental Health Services¹

In 1990, the Urban Strategies Council (USC) and the superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District recognized a common challenge; the school system and the city's array of social service agencies were not dealing with children comprehensively. Students' difficulties at school often emanated from problems at home, but the efforts of the schools and other agencies to help were fragmented and sometimes contradictory. Agencies usually became involved only at times of crisis rather than working coherently to address root causes of problems.

Recognizing its advanced data processing capabilities and the fact that it already had some of the relevant information on hand, USC secured, processed, and linked school and social agency data files for students of one elementary school and their families. The results were presented to agency representatives in a 1991 meeting called "The Same Client." The overlap of service provision was striking, and it motivated agreement to conduct a similar study for additional schools. In 1992, USC published the results in the report "Partnership for Change." It showed that almost 2 of 3 students used public services, and more than a third used at least two different services. The report also documented that the system was investing significantly more in crisis services than in prevention and that there were important differences between racial groups in service needs as well as in actual provision of these services.

Study findings were presented to the county's board of supervisors and other high-level officials, but their most important use was for the creation of Oakland's Interagency Group, which USC convened and facilitated. The process established new working relationships among representatives of different agencies, as it forced them to recognize common challenges. To move forward, they had to "acquaint themselves with agencies outside their normal scope of work," and together "discuss the kinds of joint action they might undertake, patterns of service use, relationships among agencies, and the ultimate effectiveness of existing programs".

This process resulted in the idea of deploying staff from different agencies to form family support teams for individual schools. The teams would "develop new collaborative strategies for working with troubled families, taking on the crisis situations most taxing for schools, and leaving school resources to be focused on prevention, on establishing more positive activities, and on outreach to parents." This concept has since been tested in several schools, and wider implementation is underway. USC continues to be involved in monitoring performance and providing ongoing guidance and support.

¹Source: Adapted from Urban Institute (1999), as cited in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Adolescent and School Health; Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Office of Adolescent Health; National Adolescent Health Information Center, University of California, San Francisco. Improving the Health of Adolescents and Youth Adults: A Guide for States and Communities, 2, p. 11. Atlanta, GA: 2004.

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For questions about this information, contact Emily S. Holder (608) 267-9170

Last updated on 2/22/2008 8:00:30 AM