Call for Abstracts
MATERNAL, INFANT, AND EARLY CHILDHOOD HOME VISITING AND PEDIATRIC CARE: POLICY AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILD HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Deadline: September 14, 2012
Although significant evidence exists in the literature to support the effectiveness of home visiting programs in mitigating child health and developmental risk factors, less is known about the practical realities and challenges of linking home visiting to pediatric care. Effective collaboration between pediatricians and home visitors is critical in ensuring that children from at risk-populations obtain the full benefits of the home visiting program. To address this gap, extend the knowledge base, highlight the state of empirical research, and provide a forum for discussion of the impacts of MIECHV on policy and practice for early childhood care, the U. S. Department of Health Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration and the Administration for Children and Families are pleased to announce a call for abstracts for papers to be published in a special supplement in PEDIATRICS on the broad theme, "Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting and Pediatric Care: Policy and Practice Implications for Child Health and Development." Click here for more information. 

 

CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Edition of Social Work and Christianity: Towards A Christian Critique of Evidence-based Practice in Social Work
Deadline: September 1, 2012
Guest Editors: Michael S. Kelly, Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work & Cynthia Franklin, University of Texas-Austin
Evidence-based Practice (EBP) is now entering its second decade in social work scholarship and practice. This special issue seeks to add a Christian perspective to the literature on the implementation of EBP in social work practice, policy, and education. Many scholars and practitioners hail EBP's impact on client outcomes and argue that it represents a deepening of our ethical commitment to empowering practitioners with a process and tools that lead to the best possible client care, while other scholars point out the limitations of the EBP approach. This special issue of Social Work & Christianity seeks to expand the epistemological and practical discussions about EBP to add a further (and we believe, necessary) complication to the debate over EBP in social work: namely, how can EBP be practiced in the multitude of Christian social work contexts we see around the world? This special issue seeks to further debate the pros and cons of using EBP in social work by asking simply, "How can Christian social workers incorporate EBP into their work?" Papers for this special issue are encouraged to look at EBP as a process that integrates clinical expertise, client circumstances, research evidence, and client values and to formulate a paper discussing one or all of those dimension from a Christian perspective. Papers can employ a variety of methodologies, though special emphasis will be given to papers that use a conceptual lens to build a foundation to either critique or defend EBP from a Christian social work perspective. Papers can be up to 20 pages, double-spaced and in APA style (6th Ed.). Contact mkell17@luc.edu

 with any questions and to submit papers as email attachments.

Child Welfare Library
Below is a list of new publications that were added to Child Welfare Information Gateway Library in July:
-Standards for High-Quality Research and Analysis.
-Outcomes of Solution-focused Brief Therapy for Adolescents in Foster Care and Health Care Settings. (In: Solution-focused Brief Therapy. A Handbook of Evidence-Based Practice)
Pakrosnis, Rytis.;Cepukiene, Viktorija.
-Research on Evidence-Based Practice Implementation in Child Welfare Systems and Organizations [Presentation Slides].
Aarons, Gregory A.
-Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: A Handbook of Evidence-Based Practice.
Franklin, Cynthia.;Trepper, Terry S.;McCollum, Eric E.;Gingerich, Wallace J.
-Quality Data: Not Just for QA Managers Anymore.
Click here to read more.

 

Each year since 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has published a report on the well-being of children and families. Pending data availability, the Forum updates all 41 indicators annually on its Web site and alternates publishing a detailed report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, with a summary version that highlights selected indicators. The America's Children series makes Federal data on children and families available in a nontechnical, easy-to-use format in order to stimulate discussion among data providers, policymakers, and the public. The Forum fosters coordination and integration among 22 Federal agencies that produce or use statistical data on children and families, and seeks to improve Federal data on children and families. The America's Children series provides accessible compendiums of indicators drawn across topics from the most reliable official statistics; it is designed to complement other more specialized, technical, or comprehensive reports produced by various Forum agencies. Click here to read the full report. 

Recently Released Reports
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) recently released a few reports.
-A Bayesian Reanalysis of Results from the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation OPRE published a report that uses Bayesian methods - an alternative to classical statistics - to reanalyze results from three studies in the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ (HtE) Demonstration and Evaluation Project. Bayesian analyses formally incorporate prior beliefs or expectations. This report illustrates how Bayesian analyses can be used in social policy evaluations and provides new insights on the findings of the three studies. The report examines the sensitivity of the results to a range of assumptions. The project was conducted by MDRC. The report can found here.
-National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being Wave 2 Report: Child Well-Being OPRE released a report from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being entitled "NSCAW Wave 2 Report: Child Well-Being". This report is the first in a planned series of descriptive reports based on cross-sectional data from the 18-month follow-up from the second cohort of NSCAW, a nationally representative, longitudinal survey focusing on children who come to the attention of the child welfare system through investigation by child protective services. The survey is being conducted through a contract to RTI. The report describes the development and functioning of the children in the sample at the time of the follow-up and can be found here. 

HHS Affordable Care Act Implementation Forums on Exchanges
Please join officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at one of the upcoming Affordable Care Act implementation forums across the country.  These sessions are intended to provide an opportunity for states and stakeholders to learn more about the next steps in implementation of the health care law and ask questions about work needed to build Affordable Insurance Exchanges in every state.  HHS leadership will provide an overview of topics related to coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act effective in 2014. Click here for more information.