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Dutch youth care organization improves client services and reduces costs with Cloud-based solution
In 2015 there were almost five million children and young people up to the age of 25 living in the Netherlands. Out of this population, 15% of young Dutch people and their families need guidance and support in parenting, healthcare or other youth services, according to the Netherlands Youth Institute.
For most of these families, the issues that most concern them relate to health, education or parenting support, which can be addressed by having access to preventative services or basic care. However, Dutch institutions realized that the national youth care system in place did not meet the actual needs of young people and their environment. It was found that sometimes the treatment they received was either too much or not enough.
To address the problem and enable a youth care system that would become more transparent, more efficient and less expensive, Dutch authorities agreed on a huge decentralization and transformation of the organization in which local municipalities became responsible for the co-ordination of most services within the social domain.
The new legislation put the onus on municipalities and presented local community agencies with a challenge: to obtain better social outcomes with reduced youth care budgets.
Digital technology to transform the Dutch Youth Care system
Several Dutch stakeholders, including the Netherlands Youth Institute and the Council for Social Development, emphasized the importance of a deeper transformation of the youth system in which decentralization would be just the first step. In this ideal support system, care professionals would have the space and the right tools to provide timely, personalized assistance plans and co-operate with families and other professionals involved.
When the new Dutch legislation on youth care was introduced, Parlan, a local agency based in Alkmaar, started exploring how technology could improve the delivery of effective care services throughout their region. Parlan covers a territory of 650,000 people and provides youth care services to about 4,000 people through 750 care professionals.
Parlan reached out to Winvision, the 2014 Microsoft Healthcare Partner of the Year and Microsoft CityNext Partner, with the goal of transforming their service delivery, improving job satisfaction among carers, increasing family engagement with the organization, and having better control of costs.
To achieve this, the technology partner worked with the agency to build new capabilities on top of Parlan’s existing IT infrastructure and deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Office 365 as the core technologies.
In addition to those technologies, Winvision created WinCare, a Cloud-enabled solution that incorporates a mobile app that caregivers can use on tablets running Windows 8.1, an online portal with family access to information and social resources, and a robust client management system that brings together all of those professionals from the various health and welfare disciplines participating in client care.
Cloud-enabled ‘kitchen table conversations’
The Cloud-enabled solution WinCare, built on Dynamics CRM, significantly improved the approach of the field professionals working directly with clients.
“One of the great things about WinCare is that it makes it easy for me to engage with my clients in their own homes where they feel the most comfortable,” says Bianca Dekker, Mobile Caregiver at Parlan.
“We like to refer to our visits as ‘kitchen table conversations,’ because that is often where we sit and have our discussions. In the past, I would make notes on paper during the visit, and afterwards I would drive back to the office and type them into the computer. But now I take notes on my tablet while we’re talking, and, if I have Wi-Fi access, the notes are automatically synced with the client’s record in the system. If there’s no Wi-Fi, then the tablet app saves the notes and syncs them when I'm back online.”
With the WinCare solution, there is a single system that everyone can use to anticipate problems and empower families to actively participate in the support service they receive.
As Piet Kerkvliet, Board Member at Parlan, says: “we’re changing the focus of caregiving. […] by using technology to build these interconnected networks of support, we not only help the youths, we help everyone around them - their families, their neighborhoods, and the entire community. We’re supporting children through their whole lives, and we like to think that we’re building a better world. This is the way that we’ve always wanted to work.”
Harnessing the power of technology for better societies
Digital technology can transform the ways in which official authorities and citizens interact with each other.
The multiple applications of technology enable governments and local institutions to promote efficiency strategies that contribute to better integrated care support at lower costs. Furthermore, by endorsing digital transformation of the public services they provide, they can empower users and citizens to better manage their care and treatments thanks to technology, whilst helping organizations to anticipate problems and come up with more effective plans of action tailored to the specific needs of people.
Embracing new technology tools provides an unparalleled opportunity for improving quality, convenience and collaboration across public health and social services. The more the digital shift is adopted by institutions and citizens, the greater the value and the better the social results that will transform societies. A win-win situation for all.
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