System and Program Standards

Successful implementation of Wraparound requires a focus on effective organizational practices and supportive systems-level structures. UW WERT works with our partners at NWIC to aid states, regions, jurisdictions, and/or communities to use research-based measures of organizational and system context to identify strengths, needs, and opportunities to improve programs and systems toward Wraparound implementation and long-term sustainability. 

 All of our measures of Wraparound system and program context are based on the Wraparound implementation and practice standards, developed by UW WERT and the National Wraparound Initiative (NWI): 

 This standards framework can be used as the basis for self-assessment by a Wraparound provider organization, community, or state to identify strengths, needs, and opportunities to improve programs and systems 

 UW WERT and the National Wraparound Implementation Center (NWIC) have also developed two instruments based on the NWI standards: The Wraparound Implementation Standards – System (WISS) and the Wraparound Implementation Standards – Program (WISP) measures. Using these tools facilitates comprehensive organizational and system assessment and provision of technical assistance from the field’s leading experts on system building, leadership, and innovative, integrated financing mechanisms. The technical assistance provided by NWIC includes options for virtual and onsite consultation from the nation's leading experts on Wraparound organizational development, financing, and systems design. E 

 For more information on using the Standards, WISS, and/or WISP to assess your initiative’s system and program conditions, contact UW WERT at wrapeval@uw.edu. Or reach out to NWIC via https://www.nwic.org/contact-us.  

 System and organizational level TA from NWIC includes: 

• Building more effective system structures, including but not limited to: governance, management, quality assurance, and practice level, including care management entities and health homes; 

• Sustaining funding of high quality, high fidelity Wraparound and other needed services, including the leveraging of Medicaid and other federal, state, and local financing mechanisms; 

• Developing and incubating “centers of excellence” for ongoing implementation, quality assurance, policy, financing, and evaluation support; 

• Building, enhancing, and/or implementing workforce development initiatives outside of the Wraparound practice model, including shifting providers from residential services to quality home- and-community-based services; and 

• Implementation of Wraparound in the context of other systems of care efforts, including developing and implementing other evidence-based and promising practices, extending care coordination to child welfare and education, and many other innovations.