Best
Practice
High Risk Pregnant Mandatory Participants
January 14, 2005
By:
Lynn Rogers
Berrien/Clinch Counties
(229) 686-5568
One of the most important roles of the Community Resource Specialist
and the Employment Services Worker is to get our TANF clients into a countable
activity. Often in Tanf orientation, we have encountered clients who are
pregnant and are currently on bed rest. We have two clients that are mandatory
in Berrien County that the doctors have allowed them to do only 2 hours of an
activity for several months. In these cases, we have been letting them sit on
our caseload and have not been able to get them to meet participation. We put
them in GED 2 hours a day, hoping that they could be working on their education
while waiting on the baby to be born. This makes the clients more accountable
for themselves by getting up every morning and being on time to the classes.
Recently, we called both of the doctors to get an update on the progress of the
pregnancy, and to see if the clients could increase the participation to at
least 4 hours a day since neither were experiencing problems while attending.
Both doctors have agreed to let them participate 4 hours a day so we can now deem 30 hours since they both have a child
under 6. Hopefully, the customers can meet for the ongoing months. The nurses
at the doctors office was very receptive when I called and explained the
program and our goals of getting clients off of cash assistance. Often the bed
rest does not require a client to actually stay in bed at all times. It may
just mean the clients cannot participate in full time regular employment. I do
explain to the doctor’s office what the Work Experience Sites expect out of a client
while they are there. The participant’s
health may change as the pregnancy goes on. Before, we left participants alone
when they reported medical problems and we have the condition verified through
a medical statement; however, Berrien county has proved that by calling and
monitoring the status of the customer may result in getting the clients into a
countable activity. This in return increases our monthly work participation
rate.