By Amy Lindholm, Management Analyst, Friend of the
Court Bureau
Behavioral science stole the show at Partner Forum this year.
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| Office of Child Support Director Erin Frisch introduces the topic for Partner Forum 2018. |
Child support professionals gathered at the Lansing Hall of
Justice from friend of the court and prosecuting attorney offices across the
state, as well as the Office of Child Support (OCS) and the SCAO Friend of the
Court Bureau. Office of Child Support Director Erin Frisch introduced the day’s
keynote speaker as one of her “favorite people in child support” because “he “always
has an idea for how to change things and make them better.”
This innovative speaker, Michael Hayes, works for the federal
Office of Child Support Enforcement and previously worked for the Texas child
support program.
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| Michael Hayes from the Office of Child Support Enforcement shares insight with Michigan child support professionals. |
He taught the partners about the theory behind using
behavioral interventions in child support (sometimes referred to as behavioral
economics), real-world examples of what other states have been trying, and then
in small groups we worked together to identify problems in the Michigan child
support program to tackle through a behavioral intervention.
Applying Behavioral Interventions
So what is a “behavioral intervention”? A behavioral
intervention uses a mix of psychology and economics to try to influence a
desired activity by presenting choices based on how humans make decisions. In
programs such as child support, our clients – parents – often must make many
decisions and take a series of actions. Behavioral science research has shown
that decision-making is imperfect and often people do not take the action that
would be in their best interest. People make mistakes, miss details, and get
overwhelmed by choices.
Hayes explained some key takeaways from behavioral science
that can influence how effectively we apply our efforts in our child support work.
He provided a handout with a list of the most common “bottlenecks” people
experience that prevent people from making better choices. He explained that
research has shown that one bottleneck - loss aversion, can be twice as powerful as similar gains or incentives. This means
that to get the same effect from warning a parent about a possible loss of $10,
you would have to offer an incentive of $20.
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| A Texas pilot project saw an increase in incarcerated parents requesting a modification of their support order when it sent postcards rather than sealed envelopes notifying the parents of the modification opportunity. |
To put this into context, one of Hayes’ real-world examples
is a Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project from the
Texas child support program regarding support modification for incarcerated
parents. Texas decided to start sending postcards with text highlighting the
benefits of completing and returning modification paperwork. This meant that
the parent could learn about support modification without
opening an envelope. Texas had found that many incarcerated payers did not open
child support program mail until their release – if at all – because they were
assuming they had no control over their case while incarcerated.
Interventions
like Texas’s support modification postcards might see an increase in response
rate of about 11 percent. You might wonder why it’s worthwhile to put time and
effort into making such a change for that level of return. “This stuff is not magic,” said Hayes. “But these interventions consistently
produced small, but significant impacts at a very low cost with high potential
for sustainability.” Learn more about the initial findings from these
federally-funded BIAS projects at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/resource/nudges-for-child-support-applying-behavioral-insights-to-increase-collections.
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| Tips on creating effective behavioral interventions from Michael Hayes' presentation. |
Another important point Hayes made is that it is crucial to
thoroughly identify and understand the problem before you start to develop an
intervention. He said that the BIAS projects have revealed that often the
problem or barrier for the parent may not be what the child support staff initially
assumed or understood it to be. Hayes suggested collecting feedback from
parents about the problem during your planning process, or at least from
frontline staff.
All of the tools that BIAS project sites have created are available
to other child support agencies in their original format for easy editing. To
access these documents, e-mail the editor at LindholmA@courts.mi.gov.
Hayes also provided a mnemonic tool, “SIMPLER,” to help focus
us on behavioral interventions that have previously been effective:
- Social influence;
- Implementation prompts;
- Make deadlines;
- Personalization;
- Loss aversion;
- Ease;
- Reminders.
These strategies help when revising something like an
appointment letter.
Jason Walker from the Muskegon County Friend of the Court
said, “We can make things simpler and easier,” and shared that his office would
like to explore using more postcard notifications.
Group Brainstorming
When we broke into groups to talk about implementing these
concepts, ideas were flowing. “It certainly causes the wheels to start
turning,” said Sandy Erskine, Director of the Tuscola County Friend of the
Court.
After lunch, each small group reported out to the forum about
their behavioral intervention concept. CyKenya Ford from OCS commented, “The
activity helped us realize that how we tackle problems is two-fold: internal (agency)
and external (client).” Ideas ranged from changing how information and options are
provided in print format to families to changing how information or training is
presented for child support staff.
WITs and Workgroups
The day closed out with work improvement teams (WITs) and
workgroups meeting to discuss more focused issues. Some WITs continued the
learning environment with additional presentations on topics like domestic
violence. For some attendees, like Dawn Pitcher from the Wayne County Friend of
the Court, these team meetings are the most rewarding part of Partner Forum.
Dawn explained that it is a chance to get to know your team members in person
and put a face to a name, since members from across the state often work
through teleconference meetings and document sharing.
Amy Lindholm holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from
Kalamazoo College and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Grand
Valley State University. She came to the State Court Administrative Office’s
Friend of the Court Bureau after managing a small international development
non-profit agency and previously working in a friend of the court office for
five years.
As editor of The Pundit newsletter, Amy encourages readers to contact her with feedback, article ideas, and article submissions at any time.
