Service Provider Staff Research Articles

The Limits of Unbundled Legal Assistance: A Randomized Study in a Massachusetts District Court and Prospects for the Future

We persuaded entities conducting two civil Gideon pilot programs to randomize which potential clients would receive offers of traditional attorney-client relationships from professional service provider staff attorneys and which would receive only limited (“unbundled”) assistance. In both pilot programs potential clients were defendants in housing eviction proceedings, and both programs were oversubscribed. In this Article, we report the results of one of these two resulting randomized control trials, which we label the “District Court Study,” after the type of the court in which it took place. In the District Court Study, almost all study-eligible eviction defendants received limited assistance in the form of help in filling out answer and discovery request forms, and most also attended an instructional session on the summary eviction process. After receiving this limited assistance, each member of a randomly selected treated group received an offer of a traditional attorney-client relationship from one of the legal services provider’s staff attorneys; each member of the corresponding randomly selected control group received no such offer. We compare outcomes for the treated (offered traditional representation from a service provider staff attorney) group versus the control (no such offer) group on a variety of dimensions, focusing primarily on possession of the unit, financial consequences of the litigation, and measures of court burden. At least for the clientele involved in this District Court Study, a clientele recruited and chosen by the service provider’s proactive, timely, specific, and selective outreach and intake system, an offer of full representation mattered. Approximately two thirds of defendants in the treated group, versus about one-third of defendants in the control group, retained possession of their units at the end of litigation. Using a highly conservative proxy for financial consequences, treated group defendants received payments or rent waivers worth a net of 9.4 months of rent per case, versus 1.9 months of rent per case in the control group. Both results were statistically significant. Meanwhile, although treated cases did take longer to reach judgment, the offer of representation caused no increase in court burden as measured by other, more salient metrics. Our results are interesting on a different dimension. A fundamental assumption of the adversary system is that the “right” answer will emerge from a process of contested facts and law in which both parties are represented by competent counsel. In our treated group, 86% of plaintiffs and 97% of defendants were represented. Under the aforementioned assumption, then, the outcomes in our treated group are a strong proxy for the “right” results in summary eviction cases, at least with respect to the class of potential clients involved in the study. The disparity in outcomes between our treated and control groups suggests that, with respect to the clientele in this study, the District Court summary eviction process did not produce the right results for control group defendants. This was true even though control group defendants received substantial (but limited) legal assistance, and even though the adjudicatory process included certain measures designed to promote access to justice, such as mediation and some judge-initiated questioning. Thus, the adjudicatory system did not provide full access to justice despite the best efforts of personnel within it. We discuss possible reasons for the magnitude of the differences between our treated and control groups. In particular, we highlight that our randomized design allows gold-standard inferences about how much an offer of full representation matters for potential clients who had already received substantial legal assistance. But we also highlight that our results may suggest that isolating a set of clients for whom limited representation is inadequate may require service provider investment in a proactive, timely, specific, and selective outreach and intake system. For these and other reasons, we caution against either overinterpretation and underinterpretation of this study. After reporting the results of the District Court Study, we offer thoughts as to the future of the study of the limited legal assistance programs and of legal services programs in general.

The contribution of a global service provider's Human Resources Information System (HRIS) to staff retention in emerging markets

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the contribution of a global IT service provider's Human Resources Information System (HRIS) to staff retention in emerging markets. This includes a comparison of the relevant issues and implications derived from a study investigating six developing countries. The author of this paper concludes that the functionality of global HR systems should be supplemented with local adaptions in order to achieve the best support for staff retention management.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical framework for this paper is based on HR literature concerning staff retention and on the framework proposed by Martinsons for human resources management applications of knowledge‐based systems. The argument is illustrated by quotes from 16 semi‐structured expert interviews with Accenture HR executives and managers in Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Latvia and Slovakia.FindingsHRISs contribute positively to staff retention for global IT service providers in emerging markets. Especially important in minimizing turnover is the support they can provide for the allocation of employees to international engagements, including scheduling and training. Culture and local labor market differences do of course influence the HR functionalities needed. This paper provides insight into the factors that necessitate local adaptions to a global HRIS.Originality/valueThis paper addresses the differences and similarities in a global IT service provider's staff retention management and the contribution of its HRIS – including global functionality and local adaptions – towards this goal in six developing countries.

HIV Services Utilization in Los Angeles County, California

Recipients of HIV/AIDS prevention services in Los Angeles County California were surveyed in 2004 by 220 HIV prevention service provider staff from 51 agencies funded by the Office of AIDS Programs and Policy. This resulted in 2,102 usable surveys for cluster analysis purposes. This Countywide Risk Assessment Survey assessed demographics, sexual history, substance use, perceptions regarding HIV/AIDS, and use of 18 different services at both the agency administering the survey and at other agencies. The 36 types of service use data were subjected to a cluster analysis that found five clusters. These service pattern clusters differed from each other on proportion HIV positive, HIV testing history, history of abuse, education, type of residence, type of funding, intervention type, and ethnicity. The analysis also suggests that domestic violence services availability and utilization should be examined more thoroughly in the future for HIV infected/affected populations.

Developing homelessness prevention practice: combining research evidence and professional knowledge

This paper presents recommendations of three kinds for the development of homelessness prevention: for practice changes, for the concerted development of evidence on the effectiveness of different measures, and for a more systematic approach to the identification and dissemination of good practice. The recommendations were developed through consultation with health-care, social service and housing provider staff. They were asked to comment on the results of a study of 131 newly homeless people, which showed that there were five prevalent 'packages of reasons' that created distinctive 'pathways' into homelessness and concluded that some cases were preventable. This article outlines the principles of homelessness prevention and recent British policy initiatives in the field, summarises the research methodology and relevant findings, and describes the consultation. The final section discusses the discrepancy between the high priority that homelessness prevention currently receives and the primitiveness of both the evidence base and the arrangements for good practice dissemination.

Using commercially available technology to assist in the delivery of person-centred health and social care.

Videoconferencing (via ISDN at 128 kbit/s) was used between a service provider, the South and East Belfast Health and Social Services Trust, and clients at home. The equipment was used successfully by various health-care workers and was sufficient for the clinical requirements of professional staff. Our experience demonstrated that there are clinical benefits of telecare. The users perceived that the technology added to the quality of their lives. Clients reported feeling less isolated, more secure at home and more in control. The Trust is currently commissioning purpose-built accommodation for adults with cognitive impairment. The residents will be people who are on the verge of requiring institutional care. Presence sensors, appliance and door contacts will allow lifestyle patterns to be monitored. The system will notify the service provider's staff of variations from the norm for each resident.

Integration of General Practitioners with Hospitals and Community Health Services: A Qualitative Examination

A series of focus groups was conducted with general practitioners (GPs), community health workers, hospital staff and consumers to examine the issue of integration of general practice within the wider Australian health system. Groups were held in various urban and rural locations to provide coverage of urban and rural conditions. The groups had representation from managerial as well as service provider staff and included GPs, hospital discharge planners, and emergency department staff, and from community health staff, nurses, physiotherapists, mental health workers, occupational therapists, and educators. Agreement was widespread that enhanced integration would confer benefits to patients, GPs, other health professionals, and to the health system generally. However, the health system was seen to be limited in its ability to integrate services. General practice, as small business working within the public health system, had different procedures and methods of remuneration than other health system components. Barriers to integration included structural, procedural and organisational factors, and included communication difficulties, variability in the roles and expectations of various service providers, and resource allocation and methods of funding. It is necessary to examine the barriers to integration more closely within the context of each type of service, to investigate effective ways of overcoming these barriers, and to describe and quantify the benefits that might arise from increased integration.

The Stereotyped Behavior Scale for adolescents and adults with mental retardation.

The development of the Stereotyped Behavior Scale for adolescents and adults with mental retardation was described. Service provider staff in three states selected 600 clients known for stereotypic behaviors and then used 66 items to rate the frequency of occurrence of these behaviors. Items with test-retest reliability less than .45 and/or interrater agreement less than .30 were deleted. The remaining 30 items were subjected to a principal component analysis with varimax rotation. A single-factor solution emerged, which explained 24.9% of the variance. After eliminating 4 items with low factor loadings, we found that the final 26-item Stereotyped Behavior Scale had an internal consistency alpha of .88, test-retest reliability was pI = .90, and interrater reliability was pI = .76.