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RCCF OUTCOMES STUDY: OVERVIEW

The Colorado Association of Family and Children’s Agencies (CAFCA) with funding from the Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) is conducting a three-year study to assess the effectiveness of services youth receive while in residential care.

Background

Residential treatment is one of the most intensive interventions provided by the child welfare, youth corrections, and mental health systems. Yet, the outcomes youth achieve from residential treatment have not been systematically measured, partly for the lack of consensus about what outcomes to measure and the lack of a comprehensive assessment tool to capture those outcomes. This study will address some of these gaps and examine fundamental issues about the reasons for admission to residential care, the profiles of youth placed in residential treatment and the outcomes of treatment services.

The Study

CAFCA and CHF have partnered with PSI, an independent contractor, to design and implement a web-based data collection and reporting system and analyze the data. We expect the analysis to:

·         Provide feedback to participating agencies that will help them improve their residential programs,

·         Identify strengths and weaknesses of residential services, and

·         Inform policies and funding priorities statewide.

The study is guided by a steering committee that selected and adapted the CANS (Child and Adolescent Needs and Strength Assessment) as the instrument the study will use to measure functional outcomes. We will supplement the CANS data with other information, including youth demographics, clinical history, family functioning, treatment process variables, and Trails data. As the study unfolds, the steering committee will monitor and make recommendations for mid-course corrections, as needed, to ensure that the study is adequately capturing the information needed to examine trends and identify areas for improvement in child welfare.

Each agency participating in the study (16 RCCFs currently) has sent representatives to be trained on the CANS and on the Residential Outcomes Collection and Reporting System (ROCRS), the web-based system designed for the study. The agencies’ ongoing responsibilities will be to train new staff hires in the assessment protocols, ensure the timely submission of data, monitor and correct gaps in the data, provide access/clearance to agency personnel and incorporate the outcomes data into their quality assurance programs.

The PSI evaluators will analyze and compile data and prepare annual, aggregate reports of findings. Each agency will be able to download and analyze its own data on a more frequent basis.

For more information contact Skip Barber, Executive Director -- Email: skipbarber@earthlink.net