Helen Sung interviewed Roxanne Ultz, Executive Director of the Family & Children’s Center of St. Joseph County, regarding the clients and services FCC offers.
Date: 3/6/17
Type: Expert Interview
Location: Hesburgh Library; phone call
Team participants: Led by Helen and observed with Cole
User Characteristics:
- Bachelors and Masters of Social Work from Western Michigan University
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker
- Executive Director of FCC
- Driven by public service and empathy for clients
Can you briefly tell me about what kind of services Healthy Families provides?
- Healthy Families is a 100% home visitation program to new or expecting parents struggling with the demands and stresses of raising a child.
- Parents learn about appropriate parent-child interactions, medical concerns, and important goals for themselves and the baby
- All families remain linked to a clinic or physician
Who are the services targeted for?
- At risk families, 2 out of 3 of these families live on $10,000 or less a year. “At risk” is a broad definition using a standard the national Healthy Families organization uses. It consists of households involving anything from substance abuse, domestic violence, adversity, and/or poverty.
- Hear about us mainly through referrals from hospitals, OBGYNS, pediatricians, and other social workers.
Why did the program choose to provide at-home services?
- Healthy Families is a national organizational design of the entire program. As a whole, the at home services are practiced as an accreditation to the organization.
- Not aware of current hard facts, but would say majority of program clients do not have a personal vehicle or have convenient mobility.
- Part of the program is the education clients about transportation resources available to them: Medicaid, Transpo bus routes, and eBus.
What is the transportation system of the program right now?
- Our staff take their own vehicles are make trips to their clients’ homes and are reimbursed for gas for $0.50 a mile.
- Each staff makes at least three trips a day
Insights
- Many of SJHS’s patients who face transportation challenges may also fall under Healthy Families’ clients. There is an opportunity for patients to have more access to resources and education if SJHS made more referrals to the Family & Children’s Center.
- FCC does not actively try to tackle the transportation conflicts its clients face, as it is not the aim of the program. But rather, it serves as an informative function to its clients.