12 minutes
Waiting, and what the record says about it Understand what a long wait does to a person's engagement, and how records convert a system fact into a personal one.
What you’ll be able to do Explain how waiting changes what a person does, and identify record categories that describe the person when they should describe the process. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What should the record show? Document a next step for Waiting, and what the record says about it: Look at one closure category you use and ask whether it leaves the question open or closes it. What a wait actually does Waiting is usually recorded as an interval, as though nothing happens inside it. A great deal happens inside it. A family member takes on support they cannot sustain. A person moves in with a relative, or does not move at all. A job is turned down because the support to hold it is not there. Savings go. Health changes. Someone who could have used a small amount of help early needs a large amount later.
There is also what repeated waiting teaches. A person who has asked before and waited learns something about whether asking is worth the effort, and that learning is durable. When they do not ask the next time, the system records nothing at all.
Process fact or attribution to the person? Offer made fourteen months after request.
Choose a category Process fact Attribution to the person Client declined services.
Choose a category Process fact Attribution to the person Three contact attempts made to a number disconnected between request and offer.
Choose a category Process fact Attribution to the person Family not engaged.
Choose a category Process fact Attribution to the person Circumstances changed during the wait; support previously provided by a parent no longer available.
Choose a category Process fact Attribution to the person Not motivated to pursue services.
Choose a category Process fact Attribution to the person Check matches Reset Three questions worth asking about any wait What is being waited for, exactly? An assessment, an eligibility decision, an opening, a provider with capacity, and a worker assignment are different waits with different causes and different owners. A single number that combines them cannot be acted on by anyone.
What is the person doing during the wait? If the answer is nothing, the arrangement is more fragile than it looks. Something is holding the situation together, and it is usually a person whose own capacity is finite.
Who finds out when the wait becomes harmful? In most designs, nobody. Adding one check partway through a long wait is among the cheapest changes available and among the most likely to find something.
The wait is part of the service. It is experienced, it has effects, and it is almost never described in the record of what the person received.
Carry this forward A long wait is not neutral time: arrangements are made, other paths are taken, hope is spent, and by the time the offer arrives the person's situation has changed.
Categories such as declined, withdrawn or not engaged attribute to the person an outcome the wait produced.
Recording what was waited for and how long makes a capacity problem visible; recording only the person's response makes it invisible.
A sort distinguishing process facts from person attributions, a scenario and a knowledge check.
Look at one closure category you use and ask whether it leaves the question open or closes it.
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