The Future of Human Services Delivery

Behavioral psychology, medical professionals, and economics play a large role in the current human services delivery and intervention models with physical check-ins and in-person interactions.

With the proliferation of mobile technologies and new emerging artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies, we are slowly transitioning to smart, customized, data-driven, and technology-infused, human services which by 2020 will be the new normal.

Recent and continuous development in technologies combined with geopolitical influences will lead to the widespread use of techniques that coax clients to alter their behaviors. These “nudges,” actions will be utilized to help improve decision-quality and encourage positive behavioral change without substantial investments. The use of technology and predictive analysis tools will enable government action on strength-based outcomes around education, incentives, citizen choice, and near real-time feedback loops.

Predictive modeling will be adaptable to support both frontline and support staff, enabling support officers to focus more on prevention and less on enforcement. Laws and regulations will be applied consistently across jurisdictions enabling fair and equitable assessment and service delivery. Behavioral nudge principles could be used to design financial coaching efforts that are aligned with data and AI-driven intelligence.

The political pressure to avoid financial reductions in human and health services while costs increase and tax revenues fall is driving change across the social enterprise management, human services policies, programs, and delivery. Decision-makers are realizing that a culture of automated processes, technologies, accessibility, and feedback loops must be part of the change to deliver fair, equitable, quality, cost-effective services.

The emergence of disruptive and mobile technologies are influencing human services leaders to better understand the need to transition to more efficient service delivery that is no longer an all-or-nothing proposition. Organizations are becoming no longer dependent or required to implement a centralized one-size-fits-all solution. Transition changes can be subtle “Nudges” with significant shifts occurring simultaneously across the functional deliver supporting and enabling areas.

Success for organizations can be measured and supported by unlocking the collected relevant data that matters. The emergence of sophisticated, adaptive, and predictive technologies enables this new way of thinking, breaking down barriers and demystifying data use. Today’s data-rich environments have brought a need to measure outputs and specific outcomes, where the data stores and predictive analysis capabilities are underutilized. It also creates a quagmire of complex “data access” questions and data ownership without easy answers.

What data do we have? What data should we collect? How we secure the data, who could access the data? And how we maintain data integrity? Are typical questions asked?

The proactive uses of predictive analytics for reporting, compliance, service consumptions, and data sharing across partnered delivery providers are exciting promises of analytics. Predictive analytics can increase the understanding of the relative effectiveness of different program types and areas so that interventions—and resources—can be targeted for better outcomes and resource allocation.

Citizens are demanding a change in the future of human services delivery and, the key decision-makers are one of the main drivers in making the most of these demands and aligning transitions to meet the citizen’s unique and changing circumstances. The outcomes we all desire and expect require harnessing technologies, trends, and predictive analysis that will enable the outcomes and societal impact in the short term, support progress, and enable continuous change years from now.

Delivery organizations are currently entrenched, siloed, and archaic in their ways of working, service planning, and delivery services to their customers. Governments, CBOs, NGOs, and other agencies often work in parallel, but rarely share information, relevant enabling (with consent) of data, and are explicitly void of common goals and practices.

The need and opportunity to embrace the new future is now, for decision-makers and leaders to extend and align Policies, Regulations, and Plans that enable and support the agreed UN Sustainability Development Goals of Human Prosperity, specifically Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The collaboration and integration of Industry, State, and Community services is required to determine how this collective can best function for greater, system-wide impact and SDG outcomes at lower than the current cost. It will require a client and community-centered approach to program-centered accountabilities, and support stronger social services through collaboration. If this approach is adopted over the coming years, human services delivery could improve dramatically. Broad coalitions of organizations with the right skills, technologies, information, and resources, led by human services programs would collectively provide accessible, coordinated, cradle-to-grave human services in a shared services model in near real-time.

The basic principle is for us to encourage citizen participation along with industry and community partners working in preventive social interventions that ultimately benefit the common good—and reduce the need for costly future remediation for which taxpayers will have to pay.

Author: Dave Gajadhar, Contrarian, and business simplification advisor

Contributor: Rob Armatys, Advisor – Business Architecture / Digital Transformation & Modernization

Contact us: ResultantGroup Your business modernization, transition, and blockchain advisors.

dgajadhar@resultantgroup.com

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The development and adoption of technology are leaving behind key social connectors!