Microsoft product donations enable enterprise class delivery of services for OSLC Community Programs.

Microsoft product donations enable enterprise class delivery of services for OSLC Community Programs.

OSLC Community Programs leverages the power of Microsoft Windows Server 2003™, Microsoft Windows Server 2008™, Microsoft Exchange 2007™, Microsoft Office 2007™ and Microsoft SQL server 2005™ in order to achieve an unsurpassed level of enterprise class delivery of service to staff, therapists and case managers who actively work towards the improvement of life for at-risk youth in Oregon.

About OSLC Community Programs (OCP) OCP is a private non-profit agency that has provided evidence-based, mental and behavioral health treatment, prevention services and programs to children, youth, and families since 1983. We conduct Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) programs, provide intensive home-based services, offer parent education curricula (Parent Management Training), and consult with communities and agencies wishing to implement the MTFC program model. Originally, OCP was a division of the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC), which is a private non-profit research group supported by federally-funded grants from agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In 1997, OCP was established to as a separate organization, specifically to demonstrate that these ‘best-practice’ programs could work in real-world settings relying on state and local support. OCP has as its mission to implement evidence-based treatment and prevention methods and practices in community settings in order to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. OCP currently employs about 60 social workers, therapists, mental health professionals and support staff. OCP serves youth as young as 3 to as old as 18 years old from a variety of child welfare, mental health, substance use, educational, cultural, and juvenile justice backgrounds.

In 1999, the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the University of Colorado Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence named MTFC as a National "Blueprint" Program. MTFC was one of 10 programs selected for national replication on the basis of demonstrated effectiveness. MTFC has also been highlighted in numerous national reports (e.g., from the Office of the Surgeon General). These accolades have come following the positive results in nine randomized controlled clinical trials that established the effectiveness of the MTFC program.

Implementation of Microsoft donated products

Not long ago, OCP therapists (like those at most private, non-profit mental health organizations) were tied to unconnected desktop computers. This meant that the productivity of users was limited to what they could accomplish at their desks. While we encouraged therapists to work in the field, clinical documentation had to occur in the office, and the activity of each therapist was independent – meaning that there was a great deal of redundancy and mistakes would often migrate from user to user before they could be detected or fixed. Recently, thanks to a creative IT team and donations from Microsoft, we have been able to get therapists out into the field, reduce mistakes/redundancy, and allow therapists to focus on the hard work of delivering needed services to children and families.

By deploying Microsoft Server 2003 R2 ™ alongside Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 ™ in early 2007, when OCP relocated to a new building, Microsoft products allowed the Eugene, Oregon non-profit to expand and deliver a reliable computing environment while staying in compliance with the regulatory requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

The power of Active Directory, coupled with Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS), allows protected client health information to remain secure in networked folders while still being highly available to users with appropriate security clearance. OCP holds as a value that services be delivered wherever difficulties are encountered (e.g., school problems are best addressed at school), and the mobile users at OCP can still access the necessary files though VPN services available through the Domain Controller (DC).

Case management has been made more efficient through the implementation of InfoPath 2007 forms that allow important information to be merged between files and curb redundancies among multiple files containing the same data. All of which is light years beyond the “pen and paper” approach that OCP was using until as recently as two years ago. This has allowed us a drastically reduced carbon footprint in terms of paper waste.

As with all clinical work, every time a client sees an OCP therapist, the interaction needs to be documented. At OCP, we have developed a unique contact management system that leverages Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7), the most recent web server from Microsoft, to allow therapists and case managers to input their clinical documentation directly online though an encrypted channel. This application is hosted on a virtual server deployed on one of our recently upgraded machines using Hyper-V technology on Windows Server 2008 Enterprise™. This deployment was only made possible thanks to the Microsoft Software Assurance program that was included in the software donation.

The backbone of the web service runs on Microsoft SQL Server 2005™. The user is granted access to this online service by Active Directory authentication via LDAP and Kerberos. All case notes are printed for archiving through an automated batch job via an Active Directory deployed printer, stored in our file room for easy and secure archival. The implementation of this web service has also led to a reduction of paper waste as case notes are only printed once now, as opposed to multiple times depending on the number of edits that were required previously.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007™ provides us with a secure and reliable way to communicate with colleagues, as well state and local agencies, and allows us to act quickly to reduce negative client behaviors and improve treatment outcomes.

Impact of Microsoft donated products

Thanks to the donated products from Microsoft, our local private, non-profit has been able to deploy a network and services that rival that of Fortune 500 companies in terms of availability, security and efficiency. The impact to our clients is greater still. By using these services, our therapists and case managers are able to not only see more clients, due to the efficiency of the systems, but also get a greater overview of the needs of the client. That, in turn, leads to improved treatment outcomes and improved quality of life for our clients.