Human Services	Agency Profile
http://mn.gov/dhs

 

Mission:

The Minnesota Department of Human Services, working with many others, helps people meet their basic needs so they can live in dignity and achieve their highest potential. Our values are:

• We focus on people, not programs.

• We provide ladders up and safety nets for the people we serve.

• We work in partnership with others; we cannot do it alone.

• We are accountable for results, first to the people we serve and, ultimately, to all Minnesotans.

DHS practices these shared values in an ethical environment where integrity, trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, diversity, justice, fairness and caring are of paramount importance.

Statewide Outcome(s):

Human Services supports the following statewide outcome(s).

Minnesotans are healthy.

Strong and stable families and communities.

People in Minnesota are safe.

Context:

Minnesota's human services delivery system has a strong tradition of providing services for people in need and helping them live as independently as possible. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) plays a key role in that effort, along with Minnesota counties and tribes – which administer most direct services – and an array of community partners in the private sector. DHS provides oversight and direction for many health and human services programs, making sure providers meet service expectations. DHS employees also provide direct care and treatment to people with mental illness, chemical dependency and developmental disabilities as well as to individuals civilly committed for sex offender treatment.

Examples of the service administered by DHS include:

·         An array of health care programs -- including Medical Assistance, MinnesotaCare, the Healthy Minnesota Contribution Program, and the Chemical Dependency Treatment Fund -- which purchase medical care and related home- and community-based services for children, the elderly and people with low incomes or disabilities.

·         Economic support programs -- including the Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Diversionary Work Program, child support enforcement, child care assistance, Minnesota Supplemental Assistance, General Assistance, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- which provide assistance to Minnesotans in poverty or at risk of poverty as they work to re-establish their livelihoods.

·         Child safety and well-being services designed to identify children subject to or at risk of abuse or neglect, and to intervene to improve the safety and quality of their home life or, if that isn’t possible, to place them with safe and loving foster, relative or adoptive families.

·         A number of grant programs to support local delivery of human services for a variety of populations in need, including recent refugee immigrant populations, adults and children with mental illness or substance abuse problems, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, vulnerable adults and the elderly.

·         Direct care provided through a statewide array of community-based and residential services for people with mental illness, chemical dependency, developmental disabilities and/or an acquired brain injury, some of whom are civilly committed by the court because they may pose a risk to themselves or others.

·         Inpatient services and treatment to people who are committed by the court as a sexual psychopathic personality or a sexually dangerous person.

Strategies:

DHS emphasizes several strategies across its budget activity and program areas to realize its mission and support the statewide outcomes listed above. The strategies currently emphasized within DHS are organized in four broad categories:

Provide smart care that keeps people healthy and in their homes and communities

·         Keep more people fed and healthy by increasing nutrition assistance participation, especially for seniors.

·         Better protect vulnerable adults, especially those directly in our care.

·         Increase the number of Minnesotans served in their homes and communities rather than in institutions.

·         Create pathways to employment.

·         Increase access to affordable health care.

·         Integrate primary care, behavioral health and long-term care.

·         Launch a campaign to encourage people to plan for long-term care.

·         Keep more children out of foster care and safely with their families.

Redesign our care delivery systems

·         Institute payment reform in health care purchasing.

·         Create a new partnership model for our work with counties and tribes.

·         Use technology to increase our outreach through online applications, a new website and e-licensing initiatives.

·         Develop secure alternatives for a select group of Minnesota Sex Offender Program clients.

·         Develop integrated services through smarter use of technology.

·         Implement MnCHOICES assessment model to better align services to individual needs.

Narrow disparities and improve outcomes

·         Enhance capacity of our tribal partners to assume more direct service delivery

·         Decrease the disproportionate number of children of color in out-of-home placements

·         Narrow the health care quality gap between clients in publicly funded health care and private enrollees

·         Increase enrollment outreach to communities of color

·         Improve life expectancy for people with a serious mental illness

·         Increase access to high quality child care

Reduce fraud, waste and abuse

·         Establish Office of Inspector General to improve fraud prevention and lead to increased prosecutions and collections of overpayments.

·         Expand field investigations through Medicaid Recovery Audit Contracts.

·         Create new enforcement tools including background study expansion, data analytics and financial integrity standards in licensing.

 

Measuring Success:

The DHS Dashboard -- http://dashboard.dhs.state.mn.us/default.aspx -- provides Minnesotans with a simple way to track the department's progress toward key agency goals. Since June 2011, the DHS Dashboard has outlined and charted progress toward goals in four priority areas: people, innovation, equity and program integrity.