2021: Virtual Human Services Delivery: Initial Findings

2021 National Poverty Research Center Topical Panel

April 6, 2021 | 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET

Convened by the Office of Human Services Policy, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in conjunction with the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many human services programs to shift from in-person to virtual service delivery. Initial research on the successes and challenges of virtual approaches to delivering services can help inform program administrators, policymakers, researchers, and providers as they consider long-term opportunities and limitations. In particular, a variety of national, state, and local stakeholders have begun trying to learn which human services appear to be effectively delivered remotely, how to best deliver them, to whom virtual services are easiest/hardest to deliver, and under what circumstances they can work well. However, because the situation has been changing so rapidly and the work is so urgent, in many cases we have not had an opportunity to come together to discuss our learnings. During this event, participants shared lessons learned over the past year, discussed promising practices and research gaps, and engaged in peer learning to advance our collective understanding of the effects of virtual service interventions for the people we serve, in particular populations who have historically faced barriers to services.

Background Resources

• Virtual Human Services Delivery Panel Summary
• Speaker Bios
• ASPE Research Findings on Virtual Human Services Delivery
• Implementing Virtual Human Services: Lessons from Telehealth, Fast Focus
• Considerations for Successful Virtual Case Management in Human Service Delivery, webinar

Agenda (Note that all times are ET)