At the Tuesday evening, June 30, County Commissioners Meeting, the Board will vote on a request from the Mental Health/Mental Retardation/Early Intervention (MH/MR/EI) Program to conduct a comprehensive Efficiency Study of all County Human Services departments. If approved, the $82,000 study will be paid for by existing funds in the MH/MR/EI budget.

James Laughman, Executive Director of MH/MR/EI, explained the goals of the study: “The primary purpose of this contract…would be to look at efficiencies in human services departments for Lancaster County. What the Brinkley Kanavy Group would do is specifically look at fiscal operations and also look at clerical…operations.” The final deliverable, according to Laughman, would be an executive summary of overall recommendations along with a detailed assessment of operations within these departments.

Laughman cited one area in which department efforts could be more effectively streamlined: “Whether you’re billing for Children and Youth, Drug & Alcohol, Mental Retardation, or Office of Aging, you’re all billing under billing codes. The codes my differ, but the processes that you go through is extremely similar.”

The resulting recommendations may include the alignment or elimination of certain positions, Laughman noted. However, he stressed that the report will merely provide recommendations. The response to these recommendations will fall under the discretion of the Commissioners.

In May, Laughman somberly presented the Commissioners with the Lancaster County Mental Health Plan for Fiscal Year 2010-2011—a plan expected to be met with considerably insufficient State funds. At the heart of this proposed Efficiency Study is the desire to see the narrow funding for Human Services result, as directly as possible, in the provision of actual Human Services.