Safety-net agencies, such as food banks and nonprofits offering health care, serve vulnerable individuals who are uninsured or underinsured and help them connect with services, such as health care, legal aid and housing. A researcher from the University of Missouri studied the closure of a large, safety-net agency and how the closure affected clients and other, smaller agencies that depended on the larger agency for referrals. Based on her research, Nidhi Khosla, an assistant professor of health sciences in the MU School of Health Professions, offers recommendations for agency leaders and policymakers to make sure safety-net agencies are sustainable and, if they do close, clients continue to receive the services they need.
“Safety-net agencies serve as starting points to connect clients with resources and help coordinate services for clients,” said Khosla, the study’s lead author. “The services that the agencies provide are interconnected, and when one agency closes, all have to adjust.”
Khosla and her colleagues investigated how the sudden closure of a large, safety-net agency influenced smaller HIV service organizations. The researchers found that the closure of the safety-net agency caused many clients to be “lost in the system,” or disconnected from services. Additionally, clients experienced delays in care and lost a resource where they could be connected to multiple services. Similarly, service agencies reported suffering from the closure because they had relied on the larger agency for case management.
Reviewed 2015-06-22