Our team of Information and Referral Specialists (database focus) and a Referral Database Coordinator works year round on updating our database of health and human services. One Information and Referral Specialist is responsible for updating the hotline database along with assistance from other staff. In addition, staff work on adding new agencies and services to the database. The team works closely together to maintain consistency in service term indexing, agency inclusion, and writing style. For more information contact Karen Brandt, Referral Database Coordinator, at 608-775-6331 or kjbrandt@gundluth.org or Teresa Halverson, Information and Referral Specialist, at 608-775-6336 or thalver@gundluth.org.

How We Maintain the Database

Entries in the database are updated every day as we learn about changes. Information and Referral Specialists continually check resources and contacts to verify changes to ensure that our data is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. We encourage you to contact us immediately if you see any information in the online database search engine or in one of our electronic directories that you believe is inaccurate. Entries in the database are also updated formally at least annually.

How We Collect Information

Wisconsin Public Health Hotlines makes a serious commitment to maintaining an accurate database. Our most dynamic resource for information is our callers themselves. Since our own Information and Referral Specialists who take calls are accessing the data every single day and giving information to hundreds of callers, we often hear about new information or inaccurate records when changes are fresh. We also subscribe to many newsletters in our search for new or changed information. Hotline staff also attends meetings with the five Regional Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs Centers and serve on statewide boards and committees where staff find out about new and changed resources. All information collected is passed along to the Information and Referral Specialists who work on the database. They then process the information for the database. We also rely on agencies to let us know when they are getting inappropriate referrals or when they have new programs. We send annual printouts to each agency in our database, showing them the details we have about their services and sites. Agencies can then review their information, and send us back their corrections or verify that their information is still accurate. Agencies can also log on through our Provider Portal at www.infoandreferralcenter.org to update their information on-line. Contact thalver@gundluth.org to obtain a user ID and password to access your agency information.

Indexing an Agency's Services

2-1-1 uses the Alliance of Information & Referral Systems (www.airs.org) approved Taxonomy of Human Services (www.211taxonomy.org), a standard indexing system used by human service Information and Referral systems throughout the United States. This national taxonomy contains thousands of service terms, organized into ten general categories and many subcategories. 2-1-1 uses a portion of these, chosen according to our own general information and referral needs. Agencies in the database cannot re-name specific service terms since the terms are part of a national indexing system. However, we invite your comments and suggestions about the service terms we use and we do add terms or make changes to terms when community needs or standards in acceptable terminology advise a change.

To Be Included in the Database or to Update Your Agency’s Information

Log on to the Provider Portal at www.infoandreferralcenter.org or contact Teresa Halverson at thalver@gundluth.org to request to be included in the database.