Blog #5

                                

In this weeks reading, SYSTEMS OF CARE, we read about the state's plan for providing a system that promotes better outcomes in health care services for the children, youth and families in Rhode Island. Written in March of 2022, it recognizes the issue made clear during the Covid 19 pandemic that many youth in Rhode Island lacked access and resources to secure health care services. The phrase that stood out is,

"Our families deserve a true System of Care for mental health and substance use conditions that

exists in a coordinated arrangement that is easy to navigate, that provides high quality care, that

meets individual needs, that recognizes and addresses trauma and historical structural racism and

other disparities, and that the state sustains financially and administratively."

This statement was relevant because it gives an overview of what is needed. While the reading gives a list of specific points the plan will address, I wonder how many goals it has achieved in the past two years since its proposal. As a parent who still struggles to get adequate services for my children I have not seen any evidence of improvement in the availability of services or ease of access.

When I think about the words research or data I think about numbers and measures. I see research as a mean to looking for answers to a question, which might also raise more questions. I see data as evidence of support to qualify something as true or false. With both research and data I believe that collection of each can be skew by the intent of the researcher's bias. I think that who and what we research and measure is chosen often by what we want to prove or disprove. Because of this I believe we should try to look at varying perspectives to try to discern the bias in research.  

For further inquiry look at this site, Dept. of Health and Human Services