{"id":71,"date":"2013-02-05T20:18:47","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T20:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vermont-yit-program.com\/?page_id=71"},"modified":"2013-02-07T22:12:02","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T22:12:02","slug":"faqs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vermont-yit-program.com\/evaluation\/faqs\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluation FAQs"},"content":{"rendered":"[spoiler title=”What is the evaluation?” open=”0″ style=”1″]The Young Adults in Transition (YIT) evaluation is a required part of Vermont receiving the YIT funding from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). It provides information about your local system of care achievements, young adult and family outcomes, and mental health and substance abuse service needs. The overall evaluation mission is to provide information that is useful to young adults, their families and adult allies, service providers, regional steering committees, and Vermont.[\/spoiler]\n[spoiler title=”What are the differences between the four evaluation studies?” open=”0″ style=”1″]There are four specific studies that make up the YIT evaluation. Regional partners are responsible for collecting data for the Common Study and Services and Costs Study.<\/p>\n
This study collects descriptive information on all young adults, ages 16 to 21, served by their region\u2019s funded system of care at the entry (or re-entry) into services. Eligible young adults are those between the ages of 16 and 21 who meet the Act 264 definition of Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED) or who are considered at risk for SED (see Study Inclusion Criteria Checklist). Because there is some identifying information we are required to collect, we need to obtain consent from young adults and if under 18 their parents or guardians as well for them to participate. The consenting and collection of data for the Common Study is designed to take approximately 20 minutes per client. The first Common Study interview must be conducted within seven days of intake into a region\u2019s funded system of care, follow-up interviews are conducted every 6 months while the youth is receiving services, and then a discharge interview is conducted when they leave services.<\/p>\n
We also work with the regions to identify eligible study participants and obtain permission for the UVM evaluation team to contact them further to elicit participation in the Vermont and National studies (see below). While introducing the Common Study to the young adult (and their parent\/caregiver if young adult is under 18 years of age), we would also like region staff to obtain permission for us to contact them to describe the next two studies (Vermont and National) in more detail. We have a protocol and forms for each region to guide this process.<\/p>\n
This is a voluntary study for young adults receiving services from their region\u2019s funded system of care and their caregivers (or adult allies). The goal is to review how the system of care promotes positive young adult development and meets the needs of young adults who have experienced mental health, substance use, or other social problems. Interviews will be conducted close to the start of services, at 6 months, and at 12 months. The interviews will take approximately one hour and are conducted by the VCHIP team.<\/p>\n
This is a voluntary study for young adults with SED and their caregivers (or adult allies) at five points in time: at the start of services, and then at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months. The interviews are more in-depth than the Vermont study (lasting about two-three hours), covering a broader number of life areas and obtaining greater detailed information. These data will also be aggregated and combined with the National sample of System of Care service recipients. The interviews for the National study are also conducted by the VCHIP team.<\/p>\n
This study collects costs information about the services received by all young adults participating in the National Study only. Regions are responsible for working with the VCHIP team to use existing sources of services and costs data to collect this information. If the current services and costs data do not provide the necessary information, then use measures provided by SAMHSA.<\/p>\n
Additional data will be collected by the evaluators using existing databases from a variety of Vermont agencies with participants\u2019 permission.[\/spoiler]\n[spoiler title=”Who is in charge of the evaluation?” open=”0″ style=”1″]The Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) at the University of Vermont (UVM) was hired to conduct the evaluation of Vermont\u2019s YIT grant. There are three evaluators (collectively working about 2.0 FTE on this project): Thomas Delaney, Jody Kamon, and Jesse Suter. Tom and Jody work for VCHIP and Jesse works at the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion at UVM. Ellen Talbert is the evaluation coordinator at VCHIP. Stasia Savasuk is a part-time interviewer collecting data in southern Vermont. Interviews with young adults and caregivers (or adult allies) will be conducted by Tom, Jody, Jesse, and Stasia. The evaluators are members of the statewide YIT Operations and Outreach Team and seek guidance from the E-Team, an advisory group of young adults, family members, and adult allies.[\/spoiler]\n[spoiler title=”What questions will the evaluation try to answer?” open=”0″ style=”1″]\n
Your data collection efforts for the Services and Costs Study should include services provided by the following organizations, both public and private:<\/p>\n
Include any data you may have on informal, natural support, in-kind, or volunteer services. If possible, we are also asking you to include data on services received as early as 1 year prior to the young adult enrolling in your region\u2019s enhanced system of care. Again this is only for young adults participating in the National study who have consented\/assented to share these available data.<\/p>\n
Your region may be using SAMHSA dollars as flexible funds. Flexible funds represent a pool of discretionary funds your region may have allocated within your plan to support children, youth, and families by purchasing items or services (e.g., rent, utilities, clothes, food, camp, car repair, etc.) that are not covered by other funding sources. If your region is providing services to young adults in the National study using flexible funds, you will need to collect information on services provided through flexible spending funds.<\/p>\n[highlight bg=”#E85C2C” color=”#fff”]There should be only one record for each service event, even though there may be more than one organization involved. For example, if a service was provided by a mental health agency based on a referral from a juvenile justice agency, it should be included as only one service event.[\/highlight][\/spoiler]\n[spoiler title=”How can this information be useful for regions?” open=”0″ style=”1″]We are very interested in making the data collected practically useful for young adults, their family and adult allies, regions, and Vermont. Once enough data has been collected in your region, the evaluators plan to provide your region with monthly reports regarding enrollment, demographics, services, costs, and outcomes. We will be working with regional steering committees to determine what information is most useful for you. Here are a few examples for how we think the information can be useful:<\/p>\n
The regional reports can provide an opportunity to examine how your system of care may be meeting the needs of young adults and for identifying areas where more work needs to be done.<\/p>\n
Regions are encouraged to compare their regional plans to the information collected as part of the evaluation. Progress on goals in your regional plans could be measured using information collected through the evaluation.<\/p>\n
The federal funds are limited, in both their allocation and how quickly the grant will end. Being able to demonstrate positive effects for young adults from regional plans provides a strong rationale for sustaining the systems, services, and supports after the grant ends.
\n[\/spoiler]\n[spoiler title=”Who is participating in the evaluation?” open=”0″ style=”1″]\n
Eligible young adults are:
\na. 16 through 21 years of age,
\nb. Served by their regional system of care funded by the YIT grant, and
\nc. Meet Act 264 criteria for Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED) OR are considered at risk for SED (see Study Inclusion Criteria Checklist).<\/p>\n
In addition to conducting interviews with young adults, the evaluation includes interviews with their caregivers. Recognizing different young adults may have very different people acting as caregivers (e.g., biological parents, adoptive parents, relatives, foster parents), this is designed to be an inclusive term defined by the young adult and his\/her family. In addition, some young adults may not report having caregivers because they are responsible for their own care. In these cases we will ask them to identify an adult ally who could complete the \u201ccaregiver\u201d interviews.<\/p>\n
Each steering committee will work with the VCHIP evaluation team to implement the evaluation in their region. <\/p>\n
Steering committees will need to designate an evaluation liaison who will be the evaluation team\u2019s point of contact and assist in regional data collection.<\/p>\n
Each region will work with the VCHIP evaluation team to implement the evaluation in their region. Regions will need to designate an evaluation liaison who will be the evaluation team\u2019s primary point of contact assisting with regional data collection. Other members of the regional system of care may be asked to adopt specific roles related to the evaluation depending upon each region\u2019s data collection plan.<\/p>\n