The Measurement Group

Improving outcomes in health, behavioral health & social services through applied social research

Evaluation, Pandemics, and Running a Small Business (From March 2020)

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Greetings from my home office! The last few weeks have brought unprecedented change to our world. We plan to re-launch this blog and share posts on a variety of topics related to our evaluation work, the programs we work with, the populations they serve, as well as assorted random thoughts about who knows what.

The AEA365 blog posted recently about the role of evaluation during a pandemic. Among other things, the piece stressed flexibility and responsiveness. I can’t agree more. I’d also stress keeping communication going in these difficult times. Our work is primarily with community-based health, behavioral health, and social service providers. They are having to re-design their services on the spot – working to maintain connections and support for their clients while keeping their staff safe and healthy.  Because community programs are focused on responding to the crisis, addressing evaluation concerns isn’t necessarily their highest priority. We are reaching out to our clients to let them know we are here for them and offering whatever support we can. And, it’s an opportunity to check in and evaluate whether we need to adjust our evaluation designs or implementations. For example, are our evaluation protocols working given new modes of service delivery? Do we need to adapt any of our procedures?

In terms of running this small business, we are fortunate – we can continue to do our work remotely without much interruption. But the logistics bring some challenges. Being able to just bounce something off one another takes a bit of planning (picking up the phone or messaging), rather than just walking across the hall in the office. On the plus side, though, we get to work surrounded by family and furry companions.

Be well,

Lisa

From the AEA365 Blog: Lessons Learned in Evaluating Cross-Systems Programs

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Credit/Copyright Attribution: Belight/Shutterstock

It’s Behavioral Health week on the American Evaluation Association’s AEA365 blog, and I had the opportunity to contribute today’s post on lessons learned in evaluating cross-systems programs. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share some of our experiences. It was an interesting exercise to think about how our work has taken a systems approach over the years.

 

Evaluation of Programs for Children & Youth

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The Measurement Group works with a range of programs that address the needs of children, youth, and families.

  • TMG evaluates programs designed to increase access to quality services.
  • TMG works with programs addressing a variety of medical, social, and support needs of children, youth, and families.
  • TMG evaluates workforce development programs that aim to increase service provider knowledge and skills.
  • TMG evaluations document the processes of innovative service models so that successful programs can be replicated.
  • TMG evaluations measure outcomes at the individual, family, program, and systems levels.
  • TMG evaluations document the implementation of best practices in services for children, youth, and families.

Selected Examples

Partnership for Families provides child abuse prevention services to families at risk in the West Service Planning Area (SPA 5) of Los Angeles County (funded initially by First 5 LA, and subsequently by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services).

PROTOTYPES, through the Effective Adolescent Treatment Initiative, provided an evidence-based substance abuse treatment model for adolescents (funded by CSAT).

Health Initiatives for Youth in San Francisco developed and implemented a youth-based HIV education and prevention model (funded by HRSA).

Evaluation of Programs for Older Adults

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The Measurement Group works with a range of programs that address the needs of an aging population.

  • TMG evaluates programs designed to increase access to quality care for all groups of older adults.
  • TMG works with programs addressing medical, social, and support needs of the elderly.
  • TMG evaluates workforce development programs that increase the number and skills of providers working with older adults.
  • TMG evaluations document the processes of innovative service models so that successful programs can be replicated.
  • TMG evaluations measure outcomes at the individual, program, and systems levels.
  • TMG evaluations document the implementation of best practices in services for older adults.

Selected Examples

The Archstone Foundation, through its Elder Abuse & Neglect Initiative, funded projects throughout California to develop, implement, and disseminate strategies for providing services to identify, prevent, and minimize the impact of elder abuse and neglect.

Two initiatives of the Hartford Institute at New York University, Resourcefully Enhancing Aging in Specialty Nursing and Nurse Competence in Aging, work with specialty nurse associations to improve nursing competencies in caring for older adults.

The Hartford Gerontological Nursing Initiative used a variety of strategies to increase the supply of geriatric nurses and the quality of care they provide by enhancing geriatric nursing training programs (funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation).

Evaluation of Mental Health Programs

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The Measurement Group works with a range of mental health programs for underserved populations. Our senior staff are strongly committed to evaluating and disseminating effective mental health service models.

  • TMG evaluates programs designed to increase access to quality mental health services.
  • TMG works with programs specializing in treatment for persons with mental health and other co-occurring disorders.
  • TMG evaluates programs that aim to increase the capacity of service providers to meet evolving needs in mental health.
  • TMG evaluations document the processes of innovative mental health services so that successful programs can be replicated.
  • TMG evaluations measure outcomes at the client, program, and systems levels.
  • TMG evaluations document the implementation of best practices in mental health.