52,348 research outputs found
Measuring the Quality of Developmental Services for Young Children: A New Approach
Outlines performance measures for Medicaid and other agencies' assessment of developmental services, including screening and referring children with or at risk for developmental disabilities; interventions; and guidance for parents. Explores barriers
Transforming Front-Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts of Institutional Settings on Services, Employment Environments, Children, and Families (SUMMARY OF FINAL REPORT)
In 2006, the Ontario government launched an ambitious and multi-faceted Transformation Agenda for child welfare services. Among this Agenda’s objectives was the development of more cooperative helping relationships in child welfare, reducing the system’s reliance on legal authority to engage families, creating community and service partnerships and increasing child welfare capacity to respond differentially to families. Within this shifting child welfare context, the Transforming Front-line Child Welfare Practice Project research’s main purpose was to understand how centrally located service delivery settings and service delivery settings that were more accessible to families affected front-line child protection practice. A second encompassing objective was to examine how partnerships with other service organizations and neighbourhood associations affected front line child welfare practice. This Transforming Front-line Child Welfare Practice research examined eleven separate accessible and central child welfare service delivery sites at six child welfare agencies in Ontario. These sites were selected to vary on these two dimensions of accessibility and partnerships. These two dimensions have also been identified in the literature as contributing to child welfare capacity to respond differentially or flexibly to familes (Cameron, Freymond, & Roy, 2003; Schene, 2001, 2005).
With one exception, accessible service delivery models in this research embedded front line child protection service providers in neighbourhoods or schools so that service providers would be more familiar and accessible to families. The philosophies of accessible programs emphasized collaboration with other community service providers, local community building and prevention. Central models located child protection service providers in agency premises that generally were not physically close to most of the families served. This was the more common service delivery setting for child protection services in the participating agencies and in other Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario.
Earlier exploratory research through the Partnerships for Children and Families program of research (Frensch, Cameron, & Hazineh, 2005a) at Wilfrid Laurier University found that different child protection service delivery settings had notable impacts on child protection service delivery including: (1) service provider accessibility to children and families, (2) the development of cooperative helping relationships with children and families, (3) the development of partnerships with other service organizations, (4) the development of partnerships with neighbourhood associations, (5) the levels and types of assistance provided to children and families, and (6) client and community image the child welfare agency.
This more extensive research built upon this earlier exploratory research. More specifically, this multi-faceted longitudinal research incorporated: An assessment of the impacts of accessible and central service delivery models on family functioning indicators and child protection system indicators (e.g. formal court applications, out-of-home placements of children, etc.). An exploration of how these different child welfare service delivery settings affected front line child protection service providers’ satisfaction with their work with children and families. An exploration of how these different child welfare service delivery settings affected parents’ satisfaction with their child welfare service involvements. An examination of how these different child welfare service delivery settings influenced the services and supports available to families. An assessment of the impacts of accessible and central service delivery settings on front line helping relationships in child welfare. An exploration of how accessible and central service delivery settings affected employment satisfaction and sustainability.
This research also discusses the development requirements of the accessible service delivery models and what practical lessons can be gleaned from these experiences. Finally, it looks at broader implications for how we understand and organize our efforts to keep children safe and help families
Measuring the 'success' of telehealth interventions
Despite substantial investment over recent years in telehealth there appears to be little consensus regarding what a successful implementation should achieve. However, defining success is often controversial and complex due to differing views from the large number of stakeholders involved, the local environment where telehealth is deployed and the scope, or size, of any planned initiative. Nevertheless, a number of generic measures are proposed in this paper which then provides a framework for the measurement of success. The local context can then be applied to determine the exact emphasis on specific measures, but it is proposed that all of the measures should be included in the holistic measurement of success. Having considered what constitutes success attention is then given to how success should be quantified. Robust evaluation is fundamental and there is much debate as to whether the �gold standard� Randomised Control Trial (RCT) is the most appropriate methodology for telehealth. If the intervention, technology and system, can be maintained in a stable state then the RCT may well provide the most authoritative evidence for decision makers. However, ensuring such stability, in what is still a novel combination of technology and service, is difficult and consequently other approaches may be more appropriate when stability is unlikely to be maintained
Achieving Efficiency: Lessons From Four Top-Performing Hospitals
Synthesizes lessons from case studies of how four hospitals achieved greater efficiency, including pursuing quality and access, customizing technology, emphasizing communications, standardizing processes, and integrating care, systems, and providers
Providing effective trauma care: the potential for service provider views to enhance the quality of care (qualitative study nested within a multicentre longitudinal quantitative study)
Objective: To explore views of service providers caring for injured people on: the extent to which services meet patients’ needs and their perspectives on factors contributing to any identified gaps in service provision
Building Medical Homes in State Medicaid and CHIP Programs
Presents strategies, best practices, and lessons learned from ten states' efforts to advance the medical home model of comprehensive and coordinated care in Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs in order to improve quality and contain costs
Strengthening Primary and Chronic Care: State Innovations to Transform and Link Small Practices
Presents case studies of state policies for reorganizing and improving primary and chronic care delivery among small practices, including leadership and convening, payment incentives, infrastructure support, feedback and monitoring, and certification
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