About the Department of Human Services (DHS)
DHS has been meeting the publicly funded human service needs of Allegheny County residents since 1997. We are dedicated to meeting these needs through an extensive range of information exchange, prevention, early intervention, case management, crisis intervention and after care services. DHS is always innovating. We value our ever-growing partnerships and input from the community as we work to improve our services and operations every day. There are many ways to reach out for assistance and to help shape the future of human services. You can learn about them in this section.
The DHS Executive Office oversees the network of integrated programs and services offered through the following offices:
- Area Agency on Aging (AAA)
- Office of Behavioral Health (OBH)
- Office of Children, Youth and Families (CYF)
- Office of Community Services (OCS)
- Office of Developmental Supports (ODS)
- Office of Administration (OA)
- Office of Analytics, Technology and Planning (ATP)
- Office of Equity and Engagement (OEE)
DHS Mission
The mission of the Department of Human Services (DHS) is to create an accessible, culturally competent, integrated and comprehensive human services system that ensures individually tailored, seamless and holistic services to Allegheny County residents, in particular, the county’s vulnerable populations.
DHS Applications
- Master Provider Enterprise Repository (MPER) – This database stores Provider Demographic information as well as Provider Relations Information (i.e. Licensing and certifications)
- Key Information Demographic System (KIDS) – This application stores information on foster parents
- Jail Collaborative
- Synergy
- Client Information and Payment Systems (CIPS) – This application tracks providers’ involvement and the interactions and services provided to clients
- Fiscal
- HMIS
- Allegheny Link
- IRES
- DialTrac
- ActionTracker
- CAT (Common Assessment Tool)
- Integrated Monitoring Tool
- SAMS – This application handles rates and contract information.
DHS API Catalog and documentation!
Here you can find all of the APIs and associated methods available to you to consume DHS data and communicate with DHS’ databases.
What is an API?
API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is an intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Think of the API as a menu where you are able to select what specific attributes you want your application to consume from DHS’ database.
When do I use an API?
Any time you want to consume real-time DHS data you would call an API method instead of consuming directly from DHS databases.
Authentication
We are handling authentication using OAuth 2.0 client credentials. With OAuth 2.0 client credentials, authenticating a client app is two-step process: first, the client sends its API credentials (a client ID and secret) to an authorization server that returns an access token. Second, the client sends a request to the API with that access token and the API verifies it and either authorizes the call or rejects it with a 401 Unauthorized response.
Requests can be authenticated by sending an access_token via authorization HTTP header and Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key
