Erin J. Maher

Is a structured, manualized, evidence-based treatment protocol culturally competent and equivalently effective among American Indian parents in child welfare?

In a statewide implementation, the manualized SafeCare home–based model was effective in reducing child welfare recidivism and producing high client satisfaction. Concerns about the effectiveness and acceptability of structured, manualized models with American Indians have been raised in the literature, but have rarely been directly tested. This study tests recidivism reduction equivalency and acceptability among American Indian parents. A subpopulation of 354 American Indian parents was drawn from a larger trial that compared services with versus without modules of the SafeCare model. Outcomes were 6-year recidivism, pre/post/follow-up measures of depression and child abuse potential, and posttreatment consumer ratings of working alliance, service satisfaction, and cultural competency. Recidivism reduction among American Indian parents was found to be equivalent for cases falling within customary SafeCare inclusion criteria. When extended to cases outside customary inclusion boundaries, there was no apparent recidivism advantage or disadvantage. Contrary to concerns, SafeCare had higher consumer ratings of cultural competency, working alliance, service quality, and service benefit. Findings support using SafeCare with American Indians parents who meet customary SafeCare inclusion criteria. Findings do not support concerns in the literature that a manualized, structured, evidence-based model might be less effective or culturally unacceptable for American Indians.

A Cost-Savings Analysis of a Statewide Parenting Education Program in Child Welfare

Objectives: This article presents a cost-savings analysis of the statewide implementation of an evidence-informed parenting education program. Methods: Between the years 2005 and 2008, the state of Louisiana used the Nurturing Parenting Program (NPP) to impart parenting skills to child welfare-involved families. Following these families’ outcomes through August 2010, increased program attendance was associated with significant reductions in substantiated incidences and re-reports of child maltreatment. Program costs and benefits (cost savings) were calculated using program, workforce, and administrative data. Results: The benefit-cost ratio of 0.87 demonstrates that the NPP approaches cost neutrality in a short time period, without the consideration of long-term benefits or benefits to other systems. Conclusion: Louisiana’s child welfare department should be able to absorb all costs of statewide delivery of the NPP through observed reductions in repeat maltreatment. Targeted program delivery could potentially yield even greater savings.

Factors Associated with Staff Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Family Group Conferences

Objective: Family Group Conferencing (FGC) challenges the entrenched practice of child welfare service providers making decisions for children and families. Instead, FGC positions families as capable planners and decision-makers given proper support and resources. Implementation research in general highlights the importance of agency climate, worker characteristics, and attitudes in predicting buy-in and efficacy of programming. Prior research shows social work staff differ in their opinions of FGC, but little research connects these attitudes to staff and agency characteristics and, ultimately, referrals and outcomes. Method: We explore the influence of staff, agency, and service availability factors on staff perceptions of effectiveness of FGC using Bayesian model averaging with 252 staff surveys. Results: The results imply that worker attitudes about FGC effectiveness are a product of attitudes towards families, type of work responsibility, and the perception of resources or services in the external environment. Among workers who carry a caseload, perceptions of effectiveness depend on perceptions of the availability and competence of local services to help families in need. Among those who do not carry a caseload, endorsement of families’ abilities to make plans to address their issues predicts endorsement of the effectiveness of FGC. Conclusions: If worker attitudes towards FGC do indeed relate to referral, fidelity, or outcomes, implementation should address the formal and informal services available to families. Future research should account for caseload status, service mix, and staff beliefs about family capacity when staff have discretion over implementation of family meeting interventions.

Effectiveness of family group conferencing in preventing repeat referrals to child protective services and out-of-home placements

Rigorous research on the efficacy of family group conferencing is rare. This randomized control trial study used an intent-to-treat approach to examine whether a referral to a family group conference (FGC) was associated with re-referrals, substantiated re-referrals, or out-of-home placements among child welfare-involved families receiving in-home services. We found no significant associations between treatment and control group assignment and the three outcomes for the sample as a whole. However, families with more children had higher odds of a re-referral and a substantiated re-referral, families with more than one parent had higher odds of re-referral, and families where a substance abuse services referral was noted had higher odds of out-of-home placement. In interaction models with race, we found that families with African American mothers who were referred for an FGC were more likely to be re-referred compared to other families, but no differences were identified with respect to their rates of substantiated re-referrals or out-of-home placements. Implications are discussed.

Early Findings From a Community-Based Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Program to Increase Family Engagement

This article describes the elements of Paths to Success (P2S)—a Title IV-E waiver demonstration project designed to increase family engagement and reduce out-of-home placement through a professional staffing and collaboration model. We present the characteristics of families participating (N = 155), including their service needs, and findings from program and administrative data about adherence to the engagement strategies. Implications for refining P2S in the context of child welfare finance reform, and Title IV-E waivers in particular, are discussed. As the number of states able to obtain IV-E Waiver funds expands, this article serves as a timely contribution to those designing new waiver demonstrations and associated evaluations.