Relief for Dallas Health & Human Services Dept.

Project Overview

Design Research and Strategy

I created seven research guides to deliver a set of full-service design strategy tools for Dallas County Health and Human Services (HHS).

Goals: Support refugee medical onboarding, engage support systems, and align localized non-profits.

The results showed that caseworkers are the most critical to medical engagement, yet medical records, training, and community resources can alleviate the load for all.

Outcomes:

  • County Training Documents

  • Client and User Product Flow

  • Dallas County Engagement Plan

Roles

Design Lead and Project Manager

Responsibilities

Team lead, survey creation/delivery

Time

4 Months

Industry

Healthcare and Social Work

Partners

Dallas County - Refugee Health Services, International Rescue Committee

The Process

  • Background Research

    Research on public health and current resources offered to partners and more

  • Surveys & Interviews

    Research guides for the partners to engage and serve patients

  • Workshop & Market Research

    I engaged stakeholders in research to gauge pain-points and gaps in services

  • Prototype & Next Steps

    I developed a set of recommendations for the county and how to scale the product

Background Research

I learned and evaluated patient needs by interviewing the clinic Program Manager at Dallas’ Health and Human Services - Refugee Clinic on their needs within their medical resettlement process.

Structured evaluation of patient needs was started by an observation of health systems, resettlement services, and contemporary issues with general medical visits.

Patient interviews after this point were facilitated by myself and staff at Dallas’ Health and Human Services clinic.

Seven Components of Whole Health

I focused on three of the 7 components of Whole Health specific to refugee health services.

  1. Community

  2. Physical

  3. Self-Care

Refugee Health Process

Family onboarding means caring from a legal and medical perspective as shown within US Resettlement Documentation

  • Screening

  • Arrival

  • Resettlement

Surveys and Interviews

Via observation of current appointment scheduling, patient use of transit systems, resettlement services, and some medical visits by refugees, I refined research plans and started gathering product features.

Initial Insights:

  • Patients prefer family-oriented appointments

  • Services outside of health can feel rushed or impersonal

  • Refugees tend to have inconsistent awareness of services

A Zoom video conference with two participants: a woman on the left with glasses, headphones, and dark hair, smiling; and a man on the right with short dark hair, smiling. The black background indicates the meeting interface, with chat messages and controls visible.

After interviewing caseworkers, clinic managers, and new/current patients I found the need to host a workshop to align perspectives and priorities.

Appointment A/B Test

I sought to test out the following topics via this experiment

  • Patient Communication Gauge

  • Modality and Messaging

Contextual Inquiry Interview

This interview sought out to explain the following:

  • Patient Appt. Scheduling Process

  • Scheduling Modality and Effectiveness

Workshop and Market Research

The workshop helped stakeholders identify common goals, issues, and potential improvements between their organizations.

Goals:

  • Align resettlement agencies and medical orgs

  • Re-define common goals in resettlement

  • Establish new arrivals into their community

Partners in Progress

Logo of the International Rescue Committee featuring a black 'R' on a yellow background with the words 'International Rescue Committee'.
Parkland logo with purple background and stylized white tree, and the word 'Parkland' underneath.
GSD logo with a torch in place of the letter I, on a maroon background.

Outcomes:

  • Features on community resources available to clients and caseworker networks in the area

  • Re-defined caseworker/patient tasks in the resettlement process

A handwritten group worksheet titled 'Collaboration for Innovation' featuring a participant's responses regarding roles, goals, quotes, and responsibilities related to working with landland refugees, including contact information for Javier Santillan.
A worksheet titled 'Collaboration for Innovation' with handwritten notes addressing pain points, gaps, and solutions related to healthcare operations and communication issues in a group setting.
caseworker user flow-chart of Relief app

Paper Prototype:

Initial caseworker training workflow for the Relief mobile app

Whiteboard with handwritten notes and diagrams about client management, database, charts, app interfaces, and training topics like health and wellness.

Initial caseworker mobile/web wireframes for Relief training module

Logo of Richardson Independent School District featuring a blue circle with white text and a red flame inside a blue letter 'R'.
caseworker training relief wireframe

Mobile wireframe for caseworkers in the Relief platform

Prototype and Next Steps

Caseworker Training

Re-establishing case worker training into a centralized platform for different organizations involved in resettlement managed by each respective governing body

New Client Documents

I gave a walkthrough to some caseworkers and medical providers in the organizations

    • Care Network Engagement

    • Client, Provider, and Caseworker Portals

    • Medical and Support Onboarding for refugees/resettled populations

What I learned

  • Building a vision of research and collective mission is inmesuarably valuable with teams that are new to design strategy

    Leadership and Support

  • Group research should prioritize consistency, worksheets, and the ability to iterate on relevant data gathering

    Data Capture Tools

  • Brining together external partners always requires extra time, planning, and a shared value proposition

    Partner Engagement