The client population in the Division of Developmental Disabilities has grown in size and complexity without a corresponding increase in case/resource management staff. Caseloads had increased to 141 persons per case/resource manager in 1997, making Washington the state with the highest caseloads nationally. Adapting workload studies used by the Division of Children and Family Services, this study provides a scientific measurement of the current workload, develops a set of minimum/essential workload standards and of optimal/best practice standards for the provision of services in DDD both for case management and for resource management activities, and provides the tools for DDD to calculate staffing needs to fulfill essential and best practice standards and to project such needs based on estimates of caseload growth, the effects of policy changes and projections of unmet service needs.
