10 minutes
Whom the Division serves Meet the groups of Minnesotans the Division supports, and see why one service question rarely has one answer across them.
What you’ll be able to do Name the main groups the Division supports and explain, with one example, why a single process can work well for one group and poorly for another. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is the most useful next step before it goes live? Document a next step for Whom the Division serves: Take one form or process you own and name which group's path it assumes. Then name who it would work least well for. One division, several service histories The Disability Services Division supports Minnesotans with developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, brain injuries, chronic medical conditions, and people living with HIV. Grouping them under one division makes administrative sense, and it can mislead anyone who assumes it also means one path, one set of needs or one relationship with public systems.
These groups arrive by different routes. A person with a developmental disability may have been known to public systems since childhood, with a school record, a family who has navigated services for years, and a long relationship with a county worker. A person with a brain injury after a car accident may be encountering all of this for the first time as an adult, mid-career, while also relearning how to manage a calendar. A person with a chronic medical condition may cycle in and out of needing support as their health changes. A person living with HIV may have had every reason to be careful about what gets written down about them.
The support each needs differs, but so does what the process itself costs them. That second difference is the one most often missed in design.
What varies across the groups the Division serves When disability entered the person's life: at birth, in childhood, or suddenly in adulthood.
Whether the person's needs are stable, progressive, or fluctuating week to week.
Whether a family has been involved for decades, recently, or not at all.
How much prior experience the person has with public systems, and whether that experience was good.
How much privacy the condition has historically required, and what disclosure has cost before.
Which other systems are already involved: health care, schools, corrections, housing, employment.
Population fact, support need or process assumption? The Division supports people with brain injuries as well as developmental disabilities.
Choose a category Population fact Support need Process assumption This person needs a consistent routine and advance notice before a change.
Choose a category Population fact Support need Process assumption Everyone can complete a form online within ten business days.
Choose a category Population fact Support need Process assumption Some people served have conditions that change from week to week.
Choose a category Population fact Support need Process assumption This person needs someone to check understanding rather than ask if it was understood.
Choose a category Population fact Support need Process assumption A single phone number reaches everyone who needs to be reached.
Choose a category Population fact Support need Process assumption Check matches Reset Test against the range, not the average What you can change You control who is in the room when a process is tested, and whether the test includes the people your sequence would cost the most.
What to watch for Do not let a good result with one group stand in for the Division's whole caseload. The group that tested it is rarely the group that will struggle with it.
Your next step Before your next process change goes live, name the person it would work least well for and find out whether you are right.
Terms worth keeping straight Developmental disability
A disability that begins during the developmental period and affects learning, language, mobility, self-care or independent living. It is a category used for eligibility, not a description of what any one person can do.
Acquired brain injury
An injury to the brain occurring after birth, from trauma, stroke, oxygen loss or illness. Effects are often invisible: fatigue, slowed processing, memory and initiation, rather than anything a person can see.
Chronic medical condition
A long-term health condition requiring ongoing management. Support needs may rise and fall, which makes a service system built around a fixed annual assessment a poor fit.
Fluctuating condition
A condition whose effects vary by day or week. A person assessed on a good day may be recorded as needing less than they need on a bad one.
Nonvisible disability
A disability not apparent to an observer. Most disabilities are nonvisible, and a process that responds only to what staff can see will miss most of the people it serves.
Carry this forward The Division supports Minnesotans with developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, brain injuries, chronic medical conditions, and people living with HIV — groups whose needs, histories and service paths differ substantially.
Disability is not a single experience: two people with the same diagnosis can need entirely different supports, and two people with different diagnoses can need the same one.
A process designed around one group's typical path quietly penalizes everyone whose path is different.
A sort separating population, support need and process assumption, and a knowledge check.
Take one form or process you own and name which group's path it assumes. Then name who it would work least well for.
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Course overview Next lesson Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
