Grant program aims to create a better referral system

Tracking referrals is often half the battle in getting people connected to services across agencies.

Getting a referral system in place is one of the goals of the Montana Support, Outreach and Access for the Resiliency of Students (SOARS) grant program to create a system for making and tracking referrals between health providers, public assistance agencies and schools.

Montana SOARS recently piloted an electronic referral system with about 40 users from Flathead City-County Health Department, Sunburst Mental Health Services and Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit and obstetrician department.

The aim of using an electronic referral system, named “Connect,” is accountability, consistency and interconnectedness between agencies or organizations to get services to people who may need them.

Flathead County Health Department users who participated in the pilot were recognized for their efforts and feedback at a Montana SOARS Community Action Team on March 16. The Community Action Team consists of 41 members from area agencies, organizations, school districts and mental health or health providers.

One pilot participant from the Flathead Community Health Center Dental Clinic said it made a difference in getting patients — especially high-risk patients — the care that they need.

Montana SOARS Project Director Ronda Stevens said it may be the case that a school social worker refers a student to a counselor in the community. In one instance during the pilot, the dental clinic received a referral from the neonatal unit for a patient’s spouse.

Healthy Montana Families social worker Paulette Lawrence, who gathered feedback from pilot participants in the health department, described how Connect works.

“Let’s say you refer someone to see me. It pops up in my email and it’s now my responsibility to call or have someone from my staff call and connect with that client,” Lawrence said. “Once it goes into the system we have 14 days to respond and get a hold of that client. If we don’t — we get another email reminder.”

It puts some responsibility on an agency or provider to reach out to a prospective patient or client.

“Sometimes clients feel so overwhelmed to secure services for themselves so this was nice having agencies giving them a call,” Lawrence said. “I’ve been a social worker for 40 years and we all have these programs that we want people to take advantage of.”

Stevens later added, “When you think of a family or student in need, or in crisis, whatever it is, that feels good that somebody really cares, they do want to help.”

The difficulty before was tracking a referral — finding out if a person did indeed contact an agency he or she was referred to, or if an agency contacted the person. In this system, providers or agencies may note that a call was made or appointment set up.

Lawrence said criticisms of the system appeared to stem from the learning curve involved.

“One of the things I noticed if someone used it only one or three times they had more frustrations with it. It’s like any computer system: the longer they use the system the more they got used to it,” Lawrence said. “And [for some] it’s another system the user has to enter information into.”

Stevens said Connect has potential to link agencies and organizations throughout the county and statewide. The system software used in the pilot is currently used by the Montana’s juvenile justice system.

“Noble [the software company] can build the bridge to eventually connect us with juvenile justice, so there’s a lot of possibilities,” Stevens said, later adding, “there are other agencies that want to join the system and we’re putting together plan, so hopefully we’ll have more participants soon.”

Kalispell Public Schools are slated to join the system one school at a time once a referral process is put in place.

Other communities sharing in the federal grant money that funds Montana SOARS such as Browning and Butte are also part of Connect. Great Falls also part of Connect. While Missoula and Billings are looking to “be connected to Connect,” Stevens said. This connection between communities would benefit family and students who move, for instance.

“The good thing about that is the goal we’re looking at statewide participation so you would be able to connect with someone in Billings, or someone in Great Falls — a facility or therapist. You’ll have a wider reach, but that’s down the road,” Stevens said.

Montana SOARS is funded through a federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant.

Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.