Jessica Thomason, executive director of the Human Services Division at the Department of Health and Human Services, told the House appropriations committee on May 20 that the division organizes its work around core functions — money management, quality standards, access assurance, and safety-net services — and a housing-and-services continuum that prioritizes integrated, home-based options when appropriate.

Thomason said the presentation was intended as an overview to “queue up” more detailed conversations the committee will hold with individual teams in the coming weeks. She described the division as ten teams that work across common goals and emphasized the need to center the citizen experience in service design. "It isn't even just us here in the division. It is all of us together at HHS," Thomason said.

Why it matters: Appropriators received a high‑level roadmap of how the division prioritizes services across child welfare, long‑term supports, behavioral health, early childhood and other systems. The framework is intended to guide budget decisions by linking program choices to the place of service — from independent home settings on one end of the continuum to institutional care on the other — and by highlighting where investments may prevent crisis by keeping people in less‑restrictive settings.

Thomason explained the continuum as a spectrum from most integrated (a person living in their own home with minimal or no services) to least integrated (institutional care with higher acuity and monitoring). She said the state’s policy goal is to deliver the right service “in the place at the right time” and to make services flexible so people can receive different intensities of care without necessarily changing where they live.

Thomason framed three cross‑cutting threads for appropriators: (1) growing a strong, stable workforce requires stable families; (2) filling gaps in the system of care can prevent crises; and (3) pushing toward simplicity improves the citizen experience. She identified “resource literacy” — being present where people look for information and making navigation simple — as a priority task. "We are really trying to figure out how do we be present where people are," Thomason said.

The overview also presented demographic context and fiscal framing. Thomason cited a 16.6% population increase in North Dakota between 2010 and 2023 and highlighted growth in both the under‑18 and over‑65 populations. She noted system interdependence across HHS divisions and framed the division’s work as supporting household stability through service choice, training and provider payments.

Discussion items Thomason flagged for follow‑up include: how human service zone navigators coordinate across systems; the role of certified community behavioral health centers in local service networks; the timeline and incremental nature of multi‑year system changes (for example, human service zone implementation and child welfare reforms); and the Armstrong administration executive budget items that affect the division. No formal committee action or vote occurred during the presentation.

The committee asked for more detail at later hearings on specific budget changes, the Armstrong administration’s proposed restorations and reductions, and the mechanics of improving citizen access (technology, forms, client portals). Thomason said many of those details will be provided by division directors in subsequent section hearings.

Ending: The presentation served as a strategic primer for appropriators on where the Human Services Division sees gaps and opportunities; Thomason said the division will bring directors and program teams to the committee for line‑by‑line detail in coming weeks.