Instrument 6: Family Interview Protocol

Instrument 6.

Family Interview Protocol

OMB # XXXX-XXXX

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Understanding and Expanding the Reach of Home Visiting
(HV-REACH) Centralized Intake Systems Case Study

Family Interview Protocol

The HV-REACH team will use this protocol to conduct interviews with families. We will conduct interviews with about three families per home visiting program. The goal is to understand their experiences with centralized intake processes for outreach, recruitment, enrollment, and referral. Interviews will be conducted in English and Spanish. Ahead of the interview, we will ask participants about their primary language.

Note to interviewer: Families may not be familiar with the centralized intake and home visiting program terminology used in this protocol. In advance of the interview, please determine what terms they use to refer to the centralized intake system and home visiting program before conducting the interview. During the interview, refer to specific names of the centralized intake and home visiting program so they know what you are asking about. They may also know the name of the home visiting model (such as Healthy Families America or Parents and Teachers).

A. Introduction

Hello, my name is [NAME]. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today. We work for a project called Understanding and Expanding the Reach of Home Visiting (HV-REACH). I work at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center and my colleague, [NAME] works at Mathematica. Mathematica, an independent research company, is leading the project. The Administration for Children and Families and the Health Resources and Services Administration are paying for the study.

We want to know how home visiting programs use a centralized intake system to help get more families into home visiting. A centralized intake system helps connects families with home visiting programs near where they live. We are interested in learning about the [name of centralized intake system] in [state, county, or locality]. We also want to find out whether this kind of centralized intake system makes it easier to match you with the services you need. Systems like these are meant to make it easier for families to enroll in home visiting. They also sometimes connect families to other programs or services, like financial assistance.

Your home visiting program, [home visiting program], recommended you as someone who might be able to talk to us about your experience. We are also talking to other families enrolled in home visiting programs, and the people who work on these programs to get their thoughts.

We want to be sure you know we are only here to understand more about your experiences learning about and enrolling in a home visiting program. We are here to learn, not to judge, and there are no right or wrong answers to our questions. So we encourage you to answer as openly and honestly as possible.

We expect this interview to take up to one hour. Before we start, I want to let you know that you do not have to participate in this study if you do not want to. You can refuse to answer any of the questions if you are unsure or uncomfortable with providing an answer. After the interview, we will send you [$40] to thank you for your participation.

We will use the information you share to write a summary of what we learned, but we will not name you in our reports. All information you provide will be kept private to the extent permitted by law, which means we would only share information if you indicate that you have harmed or express an intent to harm yourself or someone else.

If you give us permission, we would like to record the information you share so we can take accurate notes. Only the people on the study team (including the people taking notes) will listen to the recording. We will destroy the recording at the end of the project. If you want to say anything that you do not want recorded, please let me know, and I will pause the recording. If you do not want to be recorded, we will continue without recording the interview.

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 #: 0970-XXXX, Exp: XX/XX/XXXX.

• Do you have any questions before we start?

• Do we have your permission to start the interview?

• Do we have your permission to audio record this interview? (If yes, turn on recording)

• And just so we have it on record, do you agree to participate in this study?

B. Respondent information

Let’s start by asking a couple questions about you and your experience with home visiting. I want to make sure I’m using the right names for the people and programs you interacted with to enroll in home visiting. Is [home visiting program] what you call your home visiting program?

1. How many children do you have and what are their ages?

2. When did your family start receiving visits from [home visiting program]?

1. How long have you been receiving home visits from [home visiting program]?

2. About how many home visits would you guess you’ve received in that time?

3. Did you participate in a different home visiting program before this one?

1. When?

1. For how long?

6. Do you participate in any other home visiting programs? Which ones?

C. Outreach and screening

Now, I’d like to understand how you found out about [the centralized intake system] and [the home visiting program].

1. How and where did you first learn about home visiting?

1. Had you heard about any other families’ experiences with home visiting programs?

2. Why did you decide to enroll in [home visiting program]?

1. What was the main reason why you decided to enroll?

2. Did you have any concerns about signing up?

1. If so, how were they addressed?

Again, I want to make sure I’m using the right names for the service you interacted with to connect with home visiting. Is [centralized intake system] the name of the first service that helped connect you to [home visiting program]?

3. Did you contact [the centralized intake system], or did they contact you?

1. Once you contacted [the centralized intake system] (or they contacted you), who helped you start the process to sign up for home visiting?

2. How did they explain the home visiting program to you?

1. Did the explanation help you decide to enroll? How so? (e.g., Did the person you talked to do anything to help you feel confident about applying for home visiting?)

2. Could they answer all your questions? If not, did they ask you to contact anyone else who could?

3. How did [the centralized intake system] help you determine which services you were eligible for?

4. What information did you have to provide to [the centralized intake system]?

1. How did you provide the information (e.g., over the phone, email, on an electronic form, in person?)

2. What did the staff at [the centralized intake system] (or the form) ask you about?

3. Was the form (or application) easy or difficult to complete? Did you receive any support completing the information?

4. Did you feel comfortable sharing this information?

5. Did they ask for your permission, or ask you to sign a release, before they would share your information with [home visiting program]?

6. Were you able to provide this information in the language you are most comfortable with?

5. Did [the centralized intake system] tell you whether you would be eligible for [the home visiting program]?

1. Was it easy to tell whether you would be eligible?

6. What information did you receive about how long it would take for you to connect with [the home visiting program]?

1. What information did you receive about how long it would take for [the home visiting program] to contact you?

7. Did [the centralized intake system] give you a choice of which home visiting program(s) they could refer you to?

1. If yes: Why did you choose the home visiting program you did? Did [the centralized intake system] help you understand which home visiting program might be the best fit for your family? How so?

2. If no: Would you have preferred a choice, if you were eligible for more than one program?

8. Did [the centralize intake system] refer you to any other services? What were they?

1. Were there other services you need that [the centralized intake system] did not connect you to? What are they?

9. Overall, how would you describe your experience with [the centralized intake system]?

10. Is there anything that could have made your experience better?

D. Referral to program and enrollment

Next, I’d like to understand how you got connected to [home visiting program] and the process for signing up for home visiting services.

1. How did [the centralized intake system] connect you or your family with [the home visiting program]?

1. Did [the centralized intake system] share your information with [the home visiting program] or did they give you a referral so you could contact [the home visiting program] yourself?

1. Did they personally connect you to the home visiting through a call or email?

2. Once connected, did [the home visiting program] collect more information from you or your family to enroll you?

1. Was this information different from the information [the centralized intake system] collected? How so?

2. How did they collect it (e.g., over the phone, via an electronic form, in-person form)

3. We’re interested in how long the whole screening and enrollment process took. We also refer to this as signing up and starting to receive services (Interviewer: Adjust this question based on how they describe the information they provided to the centralized intake system above)

1. About how long did it take to get connected to and screened by [the centralized intake system]? How many times did you speak with them?

4. About how long did it take for you to connect with [the home visiting program] after you signed up with the centralized intake system?

5. Once you connected with [the home visiting program], how long was it before the home visits started?

6. What type of contact did you have with [the centralized intake system] or [the home visiting program] while you were waiting?

7. Overall, how would you describe your experience with the hand-off or referral from [the centralized intake system] to [the home visiting program]?

1. Was anything unclear or confusing, or did it go smoothly?

8. Did [the home visiting program] describe their services any differently from how [the centralized intake system] described it? How so?

9. What did [the centralized intake and home visiting program] staff do to make you feel comfortable during the enrollment process?

E. Overall experience and opportunities for improvement

Next, I’d like to understand your overall experience and opportunities for improving how families are connected to home visiting programs.

1. What can be done to improve the hand-off or referral you received from [the centralized intake system] to [the home visiting program]?

2. What advice do you have for home visiting programs that are trying to reach families like yours and get them to sign up for home visiting programs?

3. Do you have any ideas for how [the home visiting program] could reach more families from different backgrounds?

4. Do you feel the program has been a good match for your needs?

1. What is helpful about it?

2. Is there anything else you were hoping to get from home visiting?

3. Have there been any ways that home visiting was not helpful?

5. (Ask about the overall interview): Is there anything I didn’t ask you about that you’d like to say more about? Or anything else to add?

F. Closing

Thank you so much for meeting with us today and sharing your experiences. This was so helpful! We really appreciate your willingness to allow us to learn from you! We will send you your [$40] after this call.

In the chat I’ve put a link to a few more questions. Your responses will be anonymous, meaning they can’t be linked back to you. We expect it will take you less than five minutes to answer them. If you could do that now, it would be very helpful!

Thanks again. Please reach out if you have any questions after this interview.