Training welfare caseworkers in service excellence: increasing children's Medicaid coverage

Many low-income children who are eligible for public sector health insurance remain uninsured. There are many barriers to enrolling these children, but one key issue is parents' reluctance to use the services of the local enrollment agency, which is usually the welfare office. The Eastside Access Partnership, a community-academic coalition on the Eastside of Detroit, addressed the problem of uninsured-but-eligible children through a variety of interventions focused on (1) enhancing community members' understanding of the enrollment process and (2) reducing institutional barriers to enrollment. One of these interventions addressed the institutional barriers by developing a customer service excellence training program for welfare caseworkers. The training program curriculum, which was developed following the principles of community-based participatory research, included extensive input from community residents, welfare agency staff, and academic researchers. The training sessions received positive evaluations from participants and agency executives. A more thorough evaluation of the project is under way.