Helping child welfare agencies benefit from new CCWIS rule
We’re privileged to work with CareDirector, which has more than 20 years of experience across the health and human services sector in the U.S., Ireland, and the U.K. I recently caught up with Dr. Ann Knefel, who is its Child Welfare Specialist, about how CareDirector can help child welfare agencies in the U.S. comply with the new Comprehensive Child Welfare Information Systems (CCWIS) federal rule.
What is CareDirector’s perspective on the new CCWIS rule?
Dr. Ann: The federal CCWIS ruling mandates modular, interoperable approaches to implementing case management solutions in child welfare agencies. That means that rather than being restricted to one specific solution—like they were under the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (SACWIS)—state agencies can pick the best of the best to meet their casework practice needs.
That will bring more cutting-edge technology to the child welfare field, which will hopefully make workers’ lives easier. It will also enhance agency performance because states can now take advantage of data analytics and visualization capabilities.
How do CareDirector’s solutions help agencies comply with—and benefit from—CCWIS?
Dr. Ann: Our modern, flexible solutions can be configured, customized, and tailored to meet state agencies’ needs and help them comply with CCWIS. That makes it much easier and faster for them to adapt their system when they change a policy or practice—and manage their workloads and performance accordingly—than the way they had to do so in the past.
For example, with our solutions, agencies can automate manual paper tasks, eliminate inefficiencies, and standardize business processes. It’s really all about reducing the burden on workers so they can focus more on the things that matter—spending time with children, youth, and families.
And because of the reporting and analytics our solutions offer, agencies can track their performance in real time, efficiently do their state and federal reporting, and use analytics to help enhance their services.
What’s different about CareDirector’s child welfare solution relative to other options?
Dr. Ann: It’s a robust, proven solution on a highly configurable platform that really makes people feel empowered. Because the solution can be personalized—with customized dashboards, for instance—it puts the power of information directly into the hands of the people who need it.
When information and insights are accessible in real time, people can make decisions with confidence and act quickly to support their agency’s mission. In child welfare, that’s critical because it’s kids’ lives on the line.
What are some benefits of CareDirector’s solutions being based on Microsoft technologies?
Dr. Ann: Because our solutions are based on Microsoft Dynamics 365, they look and work like the everyday tools people are familiar with so that minimizes training needs and increases acceptance. They also work seamlessly with agencies’ other IT investments. And the Microsoft platform has proven itself to be secure, scalable, and robust—for example, in one of our installations, we deployed our solution to support 16,000 simultaneous users. It’s a very safe technical platform that agencies can count on.
How can one learn more about CareDirector’s child welfare solutions?
Dr. Ann: You can visit our website, which is www.caredirector.us. There, you can sign up for a demonstration. If you’d like a one-on-one discussion about how we can help your agency, you can contact Richard Wells, our Senior Account Manager at rwells@caredirector.us.
