Supporting Career Development and Employment: Benefits Planning, Assistance and Outreach (BPA&O) and Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS)

This training curriculum is dedicated to increasing knowledge and understanding of the Social Security Administration\u27s disability and return to work programs and work incentive provisions as prescribed in the Social Security Act and Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 as well as other federal benefit programs. These informational resources were compiled and edited to provide continuing education and print materials for benefits specialists and protection and advocacy personnel on the interplay of these benefit programs and impact or employment

A Truer Concept of Service for Citizenship: Reimagining Military Naturalization

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides noncitizen service members and honorably discharged immigrant veterans a path toward United States citizenship. The Act allows those who have honorably served in the military to apply for naturalization with a considerably reduced residency requirement. However, the current military naturalization process is riddled with complexity, excessive and arbitrary vetting practices, misinformation, and an ever-growing backlog of naturalization applications that have precipitated processing delays. These flaws result in veteran deportations, which precipitate family separations and the deprivation of healthcare for veterans. Furthermore, requiring separate enlistment and naturalization processes leads to squandered government resources in the form of wasted work hours, duplicative background checks, and the addition of more applicants to an already overburdened immigration processing backlog. Moreover, the current system has arguably led to decreased noncitizen participation in the military and deterred eligible recruits with highly sought-after skills from enlisting. Although Congress has made attempts to address the shortfalls of the system with a patchwork of legislation aimed at addressing the process’s consequences, it fails to target fundamental defects that cause them. The most efficient and effective remedy is a bottom-up reimagining of military service for citizenship—replacing the existing framework for military naturalization with voluntary automatic citizenship upon taking the Oath of Enlistment. Such an approach can adequately incorporate the substantive requirements for citizenship, mitigate the shortcomings of the current framework, and advance both United States national security and governmental efficiency. The current enlistment process functionally duplicates the procedures for naturalization and fulfills the same substantive requirements through its application questions, military aptitude screening, background checks, and Oath of Enlistment. A voluntary automatic service for citizenship initiative would benefit immigrant service members, the United States military, and the nation as a whole

Disaster Relief Medicaid Evaluation Project

[Excerpt] This study is a retrospective evaluation of the enrollment processes and service delivery associated with DRM. It examines this unexpected experiment and assesses the outcomes. This report begins with an overview of the Medicaid/Family Health Plus program in September 2001, and is followed by a description of the challenges of, and responses to, the World Trade Center disaster. It then looks at how well the DRM process worked, how accessible needed services were for recipients, how costs compared to costs associated with those previously enrolled in the traditional Medicaid program, and how the different eligibility/verification procedures affected program integrity. Finally, in the section Background Information: Detailed History of Disaster Relief Medicaid, it presents a narrative timeline, detailing the decision steps by which DRM was implemented

Social and behavioral determinants of health in the era of artificial intelligence with electronic health records: A scoping review

Background: There is growing evidence that social and behavioral determinants of health (SBDH) play a substantial effect in a wide range of health outcomes. Electronic health records (EHRs) have been widely employed to conduct observational studies in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). However, there has been little research into how to make the most of SBDH information from EHRs. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in six databases to find relevant peer-reviewed publications that had recently been published. Relevance was determined by screening and evaluating the articles. Based on selected relevant studies, a methodological analysis of AI algorithms leveraging SBDH information in EHR data was provided. Results: Our synthesis was driven by an analysis of SBDH categories, the relationship between SBDH and healthcare-related statuses, and several NLP approaches for extracting SDOH from clinical literature. Discussion: The associations between SBDH and health outcomes are complicated and diverse; several pathways may be involved. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to support the extraction of SBDH and other clinical ideas simplifies the identification and extraction of essential concepts from clinical data, efficiently unlocks unstructured data, and aids in the resolution of unstructured data-related issues. Conclusion: Despite known associations between SBDH and disease, SBDH factors are rarely investigated as interventions to improve patient outcomes. Gaining knowledge about SBDH and how SBDH data can be collected from EHRs using NLP approaches and predictive models improves the chances of influencing health policy change for patient wellness, and ultimately promoting health and health equity. Keywords: Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health, Artificial Intelligence, Electronic Health Records, Natural Language Processing, Predictive ModelComment: 32 pages, 5 figure

Implementing means-tested welfare systems in the United States

While targeting can effectively channel resources to the poor, implementation details matter tremendously to distributive outcomes. Several key factors affect performance, including: data collection processes; information management; household assessment mechanisms; institutional arrangements; and monitoring and oversight mechanisms. This report conducts an in-depth assessment of key design and implementation factors and their potential impact on outcomes for the household targeting system used in the United States to target social programs to the poor and vulnerable.

The At Home/Chez Soi trial protocol: a pragmatic, multi-site, randomised controlled trial of a Housing First intervention for homeless individuals with mental illness in five Canadian cities

This article was published in BMJ Open following peer review and can also be viewed on the journal’s website at http://bmjopen.bmj.comIntroduction: Housing First is a complex housing and support intervention for homeless individuals with mental health problems. It has a sufficient knowledge base and interest to warrant a test of wide-scale implementation in various settings. This protocol describes the quantitative design of a Canadian five city, $110 million demonstration project and provides the rationale for key scientific decisions. Methods: A pragmatic, mixed methods, multi-site field trial of the effectiveness of Housing First in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton, is randomising approximately 2500 participants, stratified by high and moderate need levels, into intervention and treatment as usual groups. Quantitative outcome measures are being collected over a 2-year period and a qualitative process evaluation is being completed. Primary outcomes are housing stability, social functioning and, for the economic analyses, quality of life. Hierarchical linear modelling is the primary data analytic strategy. Ethics and dissemination: Research ethics board approval has been obtained from 11 institutions and a safety and adverse events committee is in place. The results of the multi-site analyses of outcomes at 12 months and 2 years will be reported in a series of core scientific journal papers. Extensive knowledge exchange activities with non-academic audiences will occur throughout the duration of the project.This work was supported by a contract from Health Canada administrated by the Mental Health Commission of Canada

We Too Belong: Resource Guide of Inclusive Practices in Immigration and Incarceration Law & Policy

The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society announces the release of a major new publication, entitled We Too Belong: Resource Guide of Inclusive Practices in Immigration and Incarceration Law & Policy. The resource guide highlights inclusive policies and practices, supplemented by case studies centered at the intersection of immigration and incarceration in the United States.  These systems are sometimes referred to as the "Double Is." "The most marginalized populations in the history of our society were those that were denied public voice or access to private space. Historically, women and slaves experienced this form of marginality. They could not vote, serve on juries, nor run for office, and they were also denied a private space to retreat to, free from surveillance or regulation. Today, immigrants, the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated, and to a large extent the disabled, most visibly inhabit this marginalized social and spatial location in American society," opened the new resource guide, effectively framing both the problems faced by individuals and the systems that impact their lives.  Developed by a team of seven co-authors, We Too Belong represents nearly three years of research into best practices and policies related to immigration and incarceration in the US. Lead author and Haas Institute Assistant Director Stephen Menendian notes that "There are dozens of cities across this country making real progress towards a more inclusive society, but too often our attention is focused on places where people are struggling. We need to shine a light on what's working, and expand our sense of what's possible. This report does that."    Drawing on the experiences of states and localities attempting to integrate immigrants and the formerly incarcerated into their social and economic fabric, We Too Belong offers a small window into the lives of people affected by these policies. The criminal justice system and immigration law serve to separate individuals from the rest of US society through physical exclusion—including prisons and detention centers. Procedurally, immigration enforcement looks and acts like law enforcement—a phenomenon known as "crimmigration"—while the criminal justice system has locked up 400 people for every 100,000 in the population with the disabled and communities of color disproportionately affected by these systems. The 100-page Resource Guide does not only give an in-depth menu of policies, but also humanizes the "Double Is" by featuring the stories of people who are the most affected by them. These nine perspectives from undocumented, incarcerated, and formerly-incarcerated individuals are featured alongside advocates and scholars who have spent their careers exploring the ways that these structures are impeding a healthy, inclusive society that recognizes the inherent dignity and humanity of all people.