Director's Message

June 1, 2007

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, M.D., Director

“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.”

~Lewis Carroll

Greetings. Much of my time the past week has revolved around the legislative session. You’ll hear more about that in future messages, so this week I’d like to take a moment to reflect on how we collaborate across programs and organize our services around clients. At the same time, I’d like to encourage you to “think outside the box.”

Last Friday I had the pleasure of taking part in the signing ceremony creating the Governor’s Re-entry Council. The Council is a partnership among the Oregon Department of Corrections, local law enforcement agencies, mental health care providers, Volunteers of America, DHS and others designed to help individuals leaving prisons successfully transition back into their communities.

One of the most exciting aspects of this collaboration is that this approach represents a great model for providing client services – one that is organized around clients’ needs rather than around separate agency programs.

Another example of this kind of collaborative approach is the effort to help new mothers learn and practice the benefits of breastfeeding, which involves the Children, Adults and Families Division’s TANF and JOBS programs, the Public Health Division’s WIC program, the Nursing Mother’s Council, La Leche League, hospitals and other organizations throughout Oregon. Once again, this partnership is organized around the needs of new mothers and their infants, rather than the structures of individual programs.

The benefits to our customers are enormous when we step outside of our individual program areas and focus holistically on our clients’ needs. Clients receive a more complete network of assistance and services without being required to seek out disconnected resources or navigate different organizations. They have less chance of falling through gaps in the system because the members of that system have linked together to eliminate those gaps.

The partners in this kind of collaboration also benefit. From a business standpoint we avoid duplication of effort, learn from each other, and reduce costs by sharing resources.

The breastfeeding partnership has been so successful that its members received a “Friend of WIC” award May 1 from the National WIC Association. I congratulate everyone involved in this effort and hope this program’s success will serve as an example to others of a successful customer-driven collaboration.

I know we have many other examples of successful partnerships, and I would like to see us develop and participate in even more. DHS is here to serve Oregonians, and I believe we should do so in a way that meets our customers’ needs without requiring them to conform to our organizational structure.

I encourage you to think about new ways of delivering services that take you outside the usual approach and that form networks and connections with other agencies and organizations with similar goals. By doing so, we can provide more effective, meaningful services to all Oregonians.

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us

This message is intended for all department employees. Please read it electronically, if possible. Managers and supervisors are asked to share the message each week with employees who do not have email access.