Topic Guide – Child Welfare Frontline Staff

R3-Impact Child Welfare Frontline Staff Topic Guide

Introduction. We are from the research firm [Abt Associates/Child Trends] and we are conducting the [STUDY NAME] evaluation. The study is overseen by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), in collaboration with the Children’s Bureau, in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As part of the evaluation, we are conducting an implementation study to learn how counties implementing [PMP or START] are approaching their work.

As part of this study, we are talking with child welfare staff to learn more about how [PMP/START] is being delivered in your community. During our conversation, we will ask questions to understand more about your community, your agency / organization, and how [PMP/START] is being implemented in your community, including partners involved in implementing the program, factors influencing implementation of [PMP/START], and your thoughts about how well the program is working.

Before beginning our discussion, we want to thank you for agreeing to talk with us today. We know you are busy and we appreciate the valuable time you are spending with us today. The interview will take about 60 minutes. Your participation is voluntary, and there are no penalties for choosing not to take part in the interview. You can refuse to answer any questions or stop the interview at any time. Our aim is to learn from your insights and experience. There are no right or wrong answers. Your answers will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. The information you provide will not be shared with other staff at your agency or organization. Your name will not be listed in any published reports, and comments will not be attributed to you. Instead, your answers will be combined with answers provided by other people in your same role that we interview across the country for this study. However, because of the relatively small number of agencies/organizations participating in the study, there is a possibility that a response could be correctly attributed to you. Your data will only be used for research purposes. The legal authority for this project is 42 U.S.C. § 1310a and Public Law 115-271. For System of Records Notice (SORN) information, please see the SORN number 09-80-0361, “OPRE Research and Evaluation Project Records.

We would like to record this discussion with a digital recorder so we can listen to it later when we write up our notes to make sure we captured everything accurately. No one besides our research team and the transcription vendor will listen to the recording. If you want to say anything that you don’t want recorded, please let us know and we will be glad to pause the recorder. Do you have any objections to being part of this interview or to us recording our discussion?

This collection of information is voluntary and will be used to understand programs that provide peer mentoring for parents involved in the child welfare system. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: XXXX, Exp: XXXX. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Kimberly Francis (Abt Associates); kimberly_francis@abtassoc.com.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

1. Respondent Information

• Name, title, organization/affiliation, length of involvement with the agency

• Overall role/job responsibilities

2. Local Context (CFIR Domain: Outer Setting)

• Barriers to family stability

• Transportation to/from neighborhoods where families live

  • To areas where jobs are available

  • To schools

• Housing affordability and availability

• Availability of jobs suitable for people in recovery

• Availability of employers providing support to people in recovery/“Recovery-Oriented Workplaces”

• Policy context, such as occupational licensing restrictions

• Families most / least affected by these barriers

  • Systemic bias in experience of barriers

• Programs / resources in the community to remove barriers

• Recent local policy or community efforts to remove these barriers, such as fair chance hiring

• Facilitators of family stability

• Social supports

• Community sense of collective efficacy

• Differential access to facilitators

3. Agency Background (CFIR Domain: Inner Setting)

• Understanding of agency’s approach to defining and promoting racial equity

  • Understanding of agency definition of racial equity

  • Agency’s goals and specific strategies around racial equity

• Training received on addressing racial disparities in system involvement and outcomes (strategies/tools for addressing racial equity, types of ongoing support /training)

• Training received on addressing parental substance use

• Perception of agency’s capacity to work with program

4. Program Background (CFIR Domains: Process of Implementation, Individuals)

• Prior knowledge of recovery coaching interventions in general

• How and when they learned of PMP/START intervention specifically

• Concerns about implementing START/PMP and how these concerns have been addressed

  • Concerns about working with mentors

  • Concerns about working with provider agency (for PMP)

  • Concerns about impact on case flow

• Overall goals when working with families and how START/PMP aligns with broader casework goals

  • Goals around reunification

  • Goals around prevention of removals

  • Goals around recovery, health, and wellbeing

  • Goals around racial equity

• Leadership support for implementing START/PMP

• Technical assistance and training received on START/PMP (including feedback on the quality of technical assistance and training)

5. Program Structure (CFIR Domain: Innovation, Process of Implementation)

• Describe role in implementing PMP/START

• Recruitment and Enrollment

• Screening process for substance use concerns

• Referral process and timeline

• Experience referring parents

• Rationale for referral (type of case, reason for case, repeat family)

• Factors influencing the appropriateness of intervention

• Assessment tools used

• Reasons eligible parents are not referred

• Barriers to accessing services for SUD

  • Variation based on race, disability, language, immigration, status, gender, or other dimensions of identity

• Partnerships

• Presence and activities of mentors in the child welfare branch offices

• Schedule and format for coordination with mentors

• Type of information shared with mentors

• Successes and challenges working with mentors

• Value of mentors and others with lived experience, including promoting equity

• Participation in partner coordination meetings

• Process for referrals to other agencies for services (including to treatment and to services similar to the intervention)

• Availability of culturally-specific services such as interpretation and translation

• Partnership challenges and how they have been addressed

• Benefits of partnerships

6. Operational Challenges and Successes

• Ways PMP/START has met/exceeded or fallen short of its goals

• Challenges encountered in implementing PMP/START and how they were overcome

• Shifts as a result of the program

  • Knowledge of how SUD affects parents and families

  • Interacting with families/understanding of parents’ experience

  • Promoting racial equity / equitable outcomes

  • Removing barriers or stigma

• Areas for improvement

• Advice for local child welfare system staff interested in similar interventions

5