Oklahoma MIECHV Centralizes Intake

Oklahoma’s Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) team prioritizes centralized intake in its collaboration, planning and systems building efforts. Six communities receive MIECHV funds and reflect a broad spectrum of diversity in community makeup, context and needs. Home visiting staff who work in centralize intake at the community level comprise the community connectors who support unifying the various providers. An effort to develop memoranda of agreement between community services was prioritized. Community connectors are to ensure that families receive services individualized for their needs and goals. Community connectors have increased awareness of home visiting and linkages to other programs such as food banks and medical providers, thus increasing the network of supporters and the population of eligible families receiving services. A new initiative related to Coordinated Intake for Oklahoma is ParentPRO which promotes Oklahoma’s home visiting system by directing families to community connectors to access home visiting services in their hometown.
Home visitors from the six MIECHV-funded communities meet monthly, which results in collaboration and integrates in-network support for professionals. Many home visitors on Oklahoma’s MIECHV team work in rural settings where a sense of isolation inhibited progress. In their work to unify and centralize intake across programs in Oklahoma, community connectors have developed a mechanism to determine duplication that was taking place as a result of families receiving services from multiple providers when one would suffice.
Update February 2016.