Commissioner Dalton acknowledges resident testimony and safety perceptions
Erin Dalton, DSS Commissioner, thanks the panel and says procedures and data matter, but resident perceptions of safety and dignity are the most important measures she wants to track.
Good afternoon, Erin Dalton, Commissioner for the Department of Social Services.
Before I begin with my testimony, I want to thank you for convening the panel of folks who came to testify about their experiences in our system.
I do think it's really important to start with the voices of people.
And while you'll hear us testify, I'm about to testify to a lot of procedures, protocols, data that we think and we set up to keep people safe and to have their voices heard.
None of it can address people's perceptions of those conditions if we don't hear from them directly.
And so while I, during my time here, will do my best work to make sure all those procedures, protocols are in place and that we use that data to help improve the system every single day,
the most important measure to me will be people's perceptions of their safety, their sense of dignity, respect.
and how we treat them in the system.
And those are measures we don't have in place at this time, but measures I can put in place and will put in place so that we can keep a pulse on what's really happening for the people who are serving in the system.
So appreciate everyone's testimony and informing us on the issues they continue to see inside our system.
All right.