By Ian Ross
Finding out who does what in delivering health and social services to the 45 communities in the Timmins, Cochrane and Timiskaming region can be a frustrating and time-consuming process.
That is why NEOnet, a community non-profit organization promoting telecommunications and technology, is forging ahead with telephone information directory assistance ,which they hope to launch in late 2002.
In northeastern Ontario there is no central service to help residents navigate the maze of human service agencies and programs for child-care training, recreation, support groups, housing and employment.
With CRTC approval having arrived in July of this year, the non-profit group is reviewing proposals to hire a consultant for a feasibility study to determine what kind of technology, infrastructure, training and costs are associated with providing 211 service to communities in the NEOnet region.
Maggie Matear, NEOnet's director of operations, says feedback from telecommunications studies done in various outlying communities only re-emphasizes the need for a central window access point for non-crisis related services.
"This is really going to take the pressure off 911," say Matear. "As much as 40 per cent of their calls are non-emergency related and could be routed to a service like 211."
Among the agency partners they have enlisted for this service are the Community Care Access Coalition, Victorian Order of Nurses, YMCA, the City of Timmins, the district social services administration board and the United Way, which has been instrumental in driving 211 initiatives in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Kingston.
"Right now these organizations are fielding a lot of calls that are not within their jurisdiction," says Matear. The service would train people already doing call referral at these agencies, and tie all their databases together.
Since money for this type of program is scarce, instead of hiring people to handle calls, the plan is to use excess capacity with different organizations. Incoming calls will be routed to an information and referral expert who has been idle the longest, thereby sharing the workload among agencies without having to dish out additional money.
"We're using existing resources in taking advantage of economies of scale by combining people already putting in 20 to 25 hours a week on call referral," says Matear. "Each agency will log on to a computer integration system and when the call comes in to 211 it will be switched to whomever is on the network and has been idle the longest."
Estimates are that calls should increase by 40 per cent once 211 system is in place.
"We're not looking for this to cost a whole bunch more than what the agencies are already spending," says Matear. "But this investment in the system will be more than made up for by the number of unmet social services needs that are currently going on the region.
"Right now many people are getting frustrated and don't get the help they deserve because they just keep getting bounced around from agency to agency."
