Lyn started working for IVRS in 1984. After taking 2-years off to be with
her family in Alabama, she returned to IVRS in 1988. She has worked in the Polk
Area Office for the majority of her career with IVRS.
Lyn has passion for the work of rehabilitation and specifically enjoyed teaching
and assisting clients become independent. Lyn always had the patience of a saint
with her clients and compassion to help them take the steps they had never taken
before.
Lyn volunteered to serve as a Ticket-to-Work (TTW) counselor and has shared
her expertise in work incentives with many in The Agency. Before her TTW assignment,
her supervisor was Carl Miller and Lyn was known to be one of the highest producers
of successful outcomes for many years.
Lyn has always been client-centered and was willing to take on extra assignments.
She even volunteered to provide mini-training sessions for support staff to
help them learn procedures and the rehabilitation process. Over the years Lyn
also mentored Drake interns to help them grow as professionals.
Lyn shared that she looked forward to having time to work on her vegetable garden
and to spend time with her grand children. She will be changing careers from
a full time Rehabilitation Counselor to a full time grandmother.
Thank you so much for your contributions to IVRS. We are very happy for you!
Harriet Seehusen has reached a major milestone in her career and decided that
she will be retiring on June 23, 2006.
Harriet has worked as a secretary for 15 years for the state; five years for
SSDB and 10 years for IVRS. Her IVRS experience includes providing support for
former program managers such as Roberta Ginnivan, Pat Steele, Kenda Jochimsen,
Karyn Link, Jean Samson, Marcia Greeny, and Suzzette Tyler. She mentioned particularly
enjoying her travels and interaction with TAP students as well as her involvement
supporting the CRP contracts. Most recently, Harriet willingly added the responsibilities
of providing clerical support for Polk and the reception desk.
Harriet has made life-long friends here at IVRS. We will all miss her sense
of humor, her flexibility to jump in and help where needed, and her daily commitment
to assist both staff and clients.
Harriet, we wish you only the best in the future!!!!
Recently in a teleconference some of the area office managers reported that
the staff felt that administration had listened to them. The staff was appreciative
stating that they have been advising administration for years to allow counselors
to work as professionals rather than simply case workers. The staff stated that
their recommendation to refrain from purchasing services, when counselors could
deliver the services directly and more effectively, would enhance the credibility
and professionalism of the counselors. It was delightful to hear that many counselors
around the state embrace the philosophy and the purpose of vocational rehabilitation
services and recognize that their involvement significantly impacts the outcomes
that clients’ achieve. The impact of this philosophical shift will positively
impact our performance on the RSA standards and indicators to achieve outcomes
with changing and limited resources.
Not only do these counselors recognize that the value they add to the rehabilitation
process cannot be something that is purchased, but so do our clients and our
partners. The client surveys that are returned generally comment that the involvement
of the counselor, the advice and guidance provided by the counselor, and the
frequent interactions between the counselor and client was the most recognized
service RSB delivers. In addition a partner in northern Iowa reported to me
that she recognized that CRPs’ need VR because we enhance their ability
to “get it right”. All of this is not a surprise, but is definitely
something we should be proud of as we continue to strive to achieve our vision
for this bureau. RSB will continue to focus upon opportunities for our staff
to increase client value through the delivery of appropriate rehabilitation
services and strive to reach this vision through increasing employment outcomes.
This will position us to be a stronger organization by exceeding our federal
standards and indicators and positively impact the quality of IVRS programming.
Successful companies are those that consider what their core functions are,
align their values to achieve their core functions, and then design deliberate
plans to achieve success. For many of us in RSB it may seem like we are going
backward. Backward to the days when counselors delivered services directly,
purchased very few services, and worked as a team with the client to achieve
employment opportunities. For others in our organization this may seem like
a fundamental philosophical change and, indeed, feel a bit insecure about our
ability to deliver the service directly without another entity like a CRP validating
our work. Regardless of where we fall along that shift in thinking, it requires
of each one of us to introspectively analyze how we will demonstrate our professional
performance consistent with our educational level and what additional professional
development is needed to develop the confidence and skill to exemplify our philosophy
and perform our core functions.
So what are the core functions of the Rehabilitation Services Bureau? The sole
purpose for our existence is our work in assisting individuals with disabilities
to obtain employment. It is the counseling and guidance that IVRS staff provides
every day to help the client make an informed choice about the future. It is
the development of plans that incorporate critical services that are NECESSARY
for the individual to minimize the barriers of disability and achieve employment.
It is the active work of the counselor interacting with the client and businesses
to better inform the rehabilitation process through assessment and employer
development activities. Our core function is creating value to the client in
our interactions to deliver quality services using our knowledge, experience
and expertise in employment for people with disabilities.
In the past achieving the core functions required a great deal of purchasing
services. While we will continue to purchase appropriate services that RSB staff
cannot provide, there are many services that RSB staff can, should, and do provide
directly to the clients without using a service from a vendor. A great example
is the Cedar Rapids Area Office where they have arranged a great partnership
with Mercy Hospital to provide job shadowing and on the job evaluation services
through the volunteer program. Mercy Hospital not only provides the training,
but they complete performance evaluations on all volunteers, which provide valuable
information to the counselors. This was established by staff of the CRAO not
through a CRP partnership.
RSB Management recognizes that as staff is asked to do more direct service delivery,
the capacity of staff must be analyzed. In our recent past we hired 11 additional
counselors as part of succession planning and because of staff capacity issues.
These counselors added great value to our ability to have manageable caseloads
and have greatly enhanced our service delivery. However the era of adding staff
is gone. Instead state government is asked to become more efficient and more
effective while ensuring greater dollars are spent on the clients who desperately
need our services. Therefore, while some vacancies will be filled, those positions
will be considered in relationship to the RSB Vision, the staffing plans, the
caseload demands, and the efficiency designs that enhance our work.
During the QA process managers asked staff to consider the work they are doing
and how it might be done differently and more efficiently. It was hoped that
the action plans would drive the re-organization of how the offices were structured
to enhance compatibility with the RSB Vision. In some offices this was achieved,
and in other offices staffs continue to struggle with connecting the dots and
pulling it together. Recent budgetary issues also impacted offices in being
able to move forward to achieve these goals as well as the delay of plans to
have Rehabilitation Assistants in every office. In addition we realize that
many offices have not been able to be fully engaged in the action planning because
of the restrictions on travel.
RSB finds itself in a bit of a catch 22 situation. Last year Matt Coulter reported
that RSB needed to reduce the caseload by 20% starting FFY 06 and it has been
reduced due to the waiting list. Now we find we must increase the caseload by
10%, and we will do that on a very gradual and consistent basis avoiding high
peaks and valleys in the numbers coming off the waiting list. There are many
factors that contribute to this: delays in writing plans, increased costs of
products and services, and budgetary projections beyond an eighteen month window.
We know that to become more efficient we need to continue with our plans of
re-organization and process redesign. However those plans have had to move much
more slowly due to the budgetary restrictions. In order for RSB to achieve that
re-organization and develop opportunities for offices to have rehabilitation
assistants and service designs that create value to the client we must work
differently while decreasing expenditures. RSB has already worked on a very
slim budget and there really isn’t much more that can be found through
office cost cutting measures. Therefore we must try to reduce the case service
budget and as such each area office will be provided a budget for diagnostics
and assessments next year. Since staff can and do provide direct services in
assessment, this appears to be the one area that a reduction is achievable.
The goal is to decrease the RSB costs in these service areas by 30% during FFY
07. Many of the actions we have been taking since February have already enhanced
the local offices’ ability to achieve this goal and those actions will
be continued.
There are many ways to reduce diagnostic costs and offices have already begun
to implement those measures. The most important quality information that we
receive concerning a person’s disability is the functional information
the client reports to the professional staff. The functional information is
what determines the impact of the disability and the placement on the waiting
list. Individuals who are social security recipients are automatically eligible
and the only additional information necessary are the reports from the client,
client family members, teachers, etc. Indeed once we have the diagnosis on any
client, or have been involved in one of our classification pilots (ISU/MCAO),
then the only thing we truly need are the reported functional limitations to
move forward.
So the big question weighing heavily on everyone’s mind is how can we
find the time to deliver the services directly whenever it is appropriate and
adds value? The capacity to deliver the services requires continual re-organization
and process re-design while developing the skills to deliver the work. We realize
that there must be a transition phase as staff engage in professional development
and develop the skills and confidence to perform the work. In addition it requires
the local offices to analyze the talents of their team and structure themselves
in a manner that achieve the vision and creates the value to the clients we
serve. Each area office will no doubt be structured in a different way that
serves their clientele and capitalizes upon the talents of the staff and the
structure. Through the action plans offices will need to analyze those actions
that create value to the customers (businesses and individuals with disabilities)
which will achieve successful outcomes. Through local office re-organization
and process re-design clerical oriented tasks will need to be delegated to support
staff so that time spent by professional staff reviewing 510s, developing lists
and scheduling services, and simple monitoring of progress is better used in
planning, job/employer development, and counseling services. Through the action
plans and well defined goals that are monitored and revised appropriately we
will transform our organization and move beyond business as usual to achieve
results. RSB Management extends a great voice of appreciation to the many staff
who already is achieving the vision as this gives us confidence that RSB will
move forward to achieve success.
As a result of all these issues we are working to re-engage all staff in the processes started a few years ago with our action planning. Therefore we will revitalize efforts to create and implement office action plans that engage and challenge staff toward reaching the IVRS vision and core functions. Through local planning staff will have an opportunity to provide direct input on service delivery design and staffing patterns to maximize the strengths of the local office. Input can be provided and strategies developed to identify and reach the key quality service indicators creating value to our clients and our employers.
We have tried to move forward slowly on the action planning so staff could feel comfortable with the concept, and now feel that we need to continue the work in planning. The attachment provides us with the conceptual framework, the time lines, and the expectations of the action plans. This was the reason we spent the first year educating all of us on what is necessary and required, the second year focusing more upon the data analysis and planning, this year on training staff to monitor and review performance, next year on analysis and action planning implementation and facilitation, and the fifth year on local control and impetus for change. While I have tried to connect all the dots between what has been happening, what we are planning, and our vision the restrictions of email will no doubt leave you wondering. Please talk to your Supervisor, Assistant Bureau Chief, or myself if you have any questions.