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C. PLANNING: Development of program details to be implemented in order to attain one or more specified objectives.
1. Challenge: Programs, services, and activities are most often the design of the majority culture. However, service recipients are often members of diverse ethnic, cultural, and other groups with values, traditions, and needs not reflected in the plan. Additionally, they may be undocumented and, as such, fear the INS if they identify themselves, have third party payer issues because of lack of eligibility due to their undocumented status, and, as a result, often wind up at the emergency room end of the continuum because they were afraid to access services earlier. These Groups are not only unserved and underserved, they also may be nonimpacted, i.e., not reached due to the inaccessibility or lack of relevance of the services that are provided. Or, they may look to other counties for services much as the Filipino communities of Daly City look to San Francisco. Planning efforts often result in the expending of time, money, and energy with little visible outcome or change. Often they are undertaken with inadequate consultation or involvement of the communities themselves, and in the absence of a high level of clout, expertise, and focus. Failure of such efforts results in frustration to both parties - - those involved and those not involved - - and leads to unproductive, blaming behavior. When services are provided in a manner that is ethnically and culturally relevant, on the other hand, attendance and participation improve, people regain control over their lives, and the community is empowered.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Work with and involve multicultural groups in changes, integrating their customs, culture, institutions, and communities into the planning process, thus empowering people and valuing them as resources, rather than viewing them as "clients". (H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term) (Priority)
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Develop new methods and practices when working with individuals in their communities, with consideration to innovative incentives, such as the provision of stipends for participation in community planning events. (H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term)
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Work with the leadership of existing community groups, instead of creating, new forums and committees, wherever possible. (H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term)
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Give leadership roles to members of multicultural groups in designing survey instruments for the assessment of community need, thus assuring that survey questionnaires include questions that will elicit from the community information reflective of community need. (H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term)
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Involve community volunteers and service recipients in planning activities, through surveys and community meetings. H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term)
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Use members of multicultural groups to conduct planning of programs, services, and activities for their respective communities, giving power back to the people, the neighborhoods, and the larger community. (H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term)
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Conduct planning activities in multicultural neighborhoods rather than in central locations, holding meetings in homes, schools, and churches in their communities, in places to which people are comfortable going. (H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term)
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Use field investigators who are of the multicultural communities being investigated, themselves planning, designing, and conducting the investigations of health and human services problems in the community. (H, SS, E, CJ; Long-Term)
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Recognize the heterogeneity of many multicultural groups, and that simply holding a language or racial strain in common does not necessarily indicate the appropriateness of a singular programmatic solution or response to a problem. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term and Ongoing)
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j. |
Develop a bylaws revision for the County Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board (DAAB) committing the Board to aggressive recruitment of members from multicultural groups. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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2. Challenge: Planning activities concerning the needs of children often focus solely on the contributions that can be made by the public school system. The "captive audience" aspect of children's attendance in school, the difficulty parents have in finding time to spend with their children in a complex urban world, and the increasing numbers of single-parent families combine to foster the notion that all potential problems can be addressed in the school setting. Such thinking often ignores the role played by other elements in the community, may lack awareness of the stresses of fragmentation in a twenty-four district public school system, causes children to have to choose between the differing information sources available to them, and may set children up for disaster when they return home and test their learning.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Include all influence groups when planning, programs, services, and activities for children, involving not just the schools, but also children themselves, peers, parents, families, health and human services workers, law enforcement, other community leaders, and the cities. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term)
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b. |
Assure that the planning agenda includes consideration for the often overlooked high-risk group of children who are not in school. (H, SS, E; Short-Term)
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3. Challenge: Programs, services, and activities for the prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery of alcohol and drug-problems are in a constant state of chance, making it very difficult for individuals wishing to access services, and those wishing to refer to them, to know what programs are available, what their eligibility requirements are, and whether or not they are doing an adequate job. The availability of up-to-date information on programs is essential to a sound, ongoing planning effort.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Hold quarterly interdisciplinary conferences on health and human services resources, including public and private sector providers and players in the criminal justice system. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term and Ongoing) (Priority)
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b. |
Create an alcohol and drug program information, assessment, and referral resource specialist position, either directly or through contract, who will keep informed about alcohol and drug programs, services, and activities in the county, will be available to discuss them in detail with individuals calling for help for themselves or others, and will possess the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to conduct assessments of potential service. seekers. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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4. Challenge: Planning efforts over the years have been conducted in the absence of essential information, including sound scientific data on the extent of alcohol and drug problems in California counties, as well as an authoritative program design or model of use to planners and administrators. Always immediately in view of planners, obscuring the perception of unmet needs in the community, are the existing service delivery systems and providers that have data supporting the modality in which they specialize. While such data often provide stirring, testimony that the system is overburdened and is unable to serve all who are in need, it remains clear that nonexistent programs, services, or modalities are gathering no data at all regarding needs that may, in fact, be of a higher order.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Conduct an epidemiologically based survey of alcohol and other drug problems in San Mateo County, with oversampling in areas of intensive inner-city ethnic distribution, in order to establish the true nature of the problem in the county, and how it is distributed. (H, SS; Long-Term)
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b. |
Conduct a study and develop a report describing an idealized program model for the San Mateo County Alcohol and Drug Program. Include review of studies conducted by the California Association of County Drug Program Administrators and the County Alcohol Program Administrators Association of California, aggregate program and budget data from the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, 1990 U.S. Census Data comparisons of San Mateo County with other Bay Area counties and the state as a whole, and the opinions of selected key informants from major research institutes in the area of alcohol and other drug problems. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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