The first paper published from the National Study of Quality Professionals in behavioral health services concludes that many quality professionals don’t think they have the skills they need to do their jobs well. The paper, published online (in prepublication format) … Continue reading
Nate Israel and I have begun recruiting agencies for our study on how performance management systems mature over time in private child and family service agencies. Read more about the study here. … Continue reading
In August, the University of Chicago will host a 3.5 day on-site training in performance measurement and quality improvement for social service agency staff and faculty members in schools of social work. For seven of those agency-faculty pairs, the training … Continue reading
The University of Chicago and Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago today announced that they will be funding a new research project to explore performance measurement in private child and family service agencies. The study, Understanding and … Continue reading
I continue to hear from people that they don’t know where they can learn the science of quality in an economical way. It really is here on the web for all of us, not always in an organized way, but … Continue reading
It is a pity that so few people will see Rebecca Gilman’s amazing new play, Luna Gale, now showing at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Mary Beth Fisher is spellbinding in the role of Caroline, a competent, yet ethically challenged … Continue reading
Starting today, some of the blog posts on the Quality Social Service website will begin to discuss results from the National Study of Quality Professionals in the social services. Our team at the University of Chicago, with funds from the Center for … Continue reading
1. Social work students intuitively understood that the social service agencies they loved had quality problems. Every one I know in the social services understands this. But few talk about it. These students knew the arenas in which their agencies … Continue reading
There are lots of resources out there for the budding quality professional in the social services to get some quality game. Social service folks are always looking for the cheap way to do things. There is no cheaper way to … Continue reading
Update 2 from my pilot course on Quality Monitoring and Improvement for the Social Services: It was great fun watching social service students catch on to the idea of improvement cycles, charters, and how to know if your change is … Continue reading