ND Social Services Redesign
North Dakota Dept. of Human Services has hosted community meetings across the state at the end of November for North Dakotans to learn about changes to state social services and behavioral health services; the “redesign” stemming from Senate Bill 2124 and the North Dakota Behavioral Health Strategic Plan, are being implemented “to better serve individuals’ needs more efficiently and effectively.”
Redesigning on a State Level
ND DHS’ stated goal with this revamp is this: “The North Dakota Department of Human Services, the North Dakota Association of Counties and county social services leaders are working together with the support of Gov. Doug Burgum and state lawmakers to redesign social services to better serve North Dakotans and deliver effective services more efficiently. The goal is
to offer quality human services statewide to North Dakotans that improve lives. This collaborative work began with the passage of Senate Bill 2206 study process approved by lawmakers in 2017.”
The November 19th updates to this redesign list these as new changes in progress:
•All access points will remain, and in some cases expand to meet clients where they are.
•Zonal organization and funding will lay foundation for continuous improvement by removing silos.
•Structure will shift service delivery organization from 47 primarily single-county units to no more than 19 multicounty units.
•Funding will be made more flexible than rate-by-case formula to promote innovation.
The new organization and funding, DHS says, will promote “Collaboration—instead of rigid county boundaries to the delivery of service, organization in zones will enable collaboration to meet the needs of citizens and scale best practices; Specialization—new funding formula will enable specialization in areas like long-term care eligibility, subsidized adoption, or child care licensing; and Utilization of capacity—shared workload will ensure that all parts of system are efficiency utilized.
The new “human service zones” takes all 53 counties and 47 social service offices in North Dakota and rearranges them to create 19 zones. North Dakota’s DHS is confident that this will improve ease of access to services, so that residents are not limited to the office in their county, and leveling funding to provide consistent services at each location.
The redesign also removes funding inconsistencies across counties in the state. Before 2017, social services’ funds came from property tax income. Because of the differences in tax bases in each county, there were inconsistencies in funding and services depending on where clients lived. Now, social services will be funded through the state to eliminate such discrepancies.
The redesign encompasses initiatives including improved access to behavioral health resources and growing prevention, early intervention, recovery, and treatment services to meet the needs of the state. Efforts to make changes to improving child protective services, childcare, Medicaid and other systems.
What’s Changing in Our Area?
Stutsman County and Barnes County social services have already agreed to merge, therefore creating one zone.
At a Barnes County Commission Meeting on August 6th, 2019, the commissioners approved the motion to designate Stutsman County as the administering county, and to appoint the two commissioners that sit on the current Social Service board and the current Social Service board president as the three representatives of Barnes County on the Zone board.” It was also stated that, through discussions with Stutsman County Social Services, Stutsman county agreed to be the “host” county (at no cost to Barnes County) and to have 3 board members from each county along with the zone director. They requested that they utilize Barnes County’s States Attorney for the zone’s juvenile cases (and attorney role in general for the Social Service’s load from both counties).
Board Members from Barnes County were approved in October and are as follows: Wanda Larson serves as Social Services Director, alongside Tom Overn, Shawn Olauson and Lisa Johnson as board members.
Each of the facets of the redesign are in various stages of planning and implementation.
To learn more or have questions answered, contact the North Dakota Department of Human Services’ (a branch focused on this redesign) at 701-328- 4933. You can reach Barnes County Social Services at 701845-8521. Visit ND DHS online at nd.gov/dhs/