Welcome to the MIECHV monthly newsletter. We hope you will find the content informative. Our website will launch Spring 2014. |
Key Contacts
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State MIECHV Lead:
Debbie Richardson, Ph.D.
Program Manager
Maternal & Child Health Home Visiting
Bureau of Family Health
Kansas Department of Health and Environment
785-296-1311
MIECHV Benchmark Reporting, Performance Management & Evaluation:
Teri A. Garstka, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Center for Public Partnership & Research
University of Kansas
785-864-3329
MIECHV CQI:
Kathy Bigelow, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Professor
Juniper Gardens Children's Project
University of Kansas
913-321-3143
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Quick Links
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MIECHV Funding Update
The MIECHV Program year 5 (federal fiscal year 2014) formula state grant award has been received by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Also expected this month, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) plans to release Funding Opportunity Announcements for states to apply for year 6 (FFY2015) formula funds and a new competitive expansion grant. State and local partners have begun discussions about this expansion grant application and expect to further develop ideas based on input from a wide range of providers, partners, and state agency representatives. The formula and competitive expansion grant applications will likely be due in September or October which may affect local MIECHV team meetings planned in September. Awards are to be confirmed by March 1, 2015, in line with the recent six-month federal MIECHV reauthorization. These funds must be expended by September 30, 2017.
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Evaluation Activities
The MIECHV state evaluation team will start the third and final round of data collection of the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) late this summer and continue into early fall. Two KU-CPPR team members, Mary Joy and Amanda Backer, will be getting in touch with home visitors and families who participated during the first or second round to solicit interest, as well as to confirm family enrollment status and addresses for mailing survey materials. We'd like to thank home visitors, in advance, for their time, efforts, and responsiveness to us throughout the data collection period. We look forward to sharing the findings about whether the relationship between a family and their home visitors can strengthen engagement and retention in services once we have completed data collection and analysis!
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Data and Reporting News
The MIECHV program is in the final quarter of the third year of data collection. Federal MIECHV guidelines require that states must show improvement in a majority of benchmark constructs by the end of the third reporting year. KU-CPPR recently produced an aggregate report of benchmark data across all MIECHV sites through June 30, 2014 that showed that Kansas is making great progress in improving practices and outcomes for children and families across all six benchmarks. This achievement is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of local MIECHV program partners and their commitment to families. It is comforting to know we are on track to meet this requirement, but also exciting to see how much more improvement can be made in the last two months of the reporting period.
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Program Spotlight
Parents as Teachers
An effective two-generational program, Kansas Parents as Teachers (PAT) partners with parents, including fathers and foster families, to strengthen and support families in their critical role as their child's first and most important teacher. The model is based on a framework of four interrelated and integrated components: personal visits, group connections, and screening and resource networks. Kansas PAT programs serve families with children prenatal to three years of age. Using a research informed curriculum, certified parent educators emphasize parent-child interaction, development centered parenting and family well-being to optimize children's early learning in language, intellectual, social-emotional and motor development and build on family strengths. The parent educator works with each family to identify goals and monitor progress. Educators help connect families with community services and resources to strengthen families and achieve goals. Families connect with their peers through group connection opportunities to increase knowledge of child development and parenting and to cultivate family social supports. Educators and parents monitor children's development and connect to needed services early, reducing the need for more expensive remediation in later years. Since 1990, Kansas Parents as Teachers has been administered at the state level by the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and provided locally by 168 school districts. The Kansas PAT program is an affiliate of the national model providing an evidence-based early childhood home visiting framework that builds strong communities, thriving families and children who are healthy, safe and ready to learn.
The Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) review examined home visiting research literature and assessed the evidence of effectiveness for home visiting program models that serve families with pregnant women and children from birth to age 5. Outcomes for eight domains as well as each model's implementation guidelines were evaluated. The HomVEE review of PAT indicated favorable impacts in four domains: child
development and school readiness, family economic self-sufficiency, positive parenting practices, and reductions in child maltreatment. Favorable impacts in all four domains were sustained for at least one year post program inception. Favorable impacts on child development and school readiness, family economic self-sufficiency, and reductions in child maltreatment lasted for at least one year post program completion. For more information on the HomVEE review and evidence based practice, visit their website:
Parents as Teachers (PAT) agencies participating in the Kansas MIECHV Program are Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (USD 500) and Turner USD 202 in Wyandotte County, and USD 445 Coffeyville and Southeast Kansas Education Service Center in southeast Kansas.
Rita Kancel, with the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) PAT program, reports that the MIECHV Program has increased the number of families that can be served and allowed home visiting services to be provided beyond the 36 month timeframe allowed by state program rules. The KCKPS PAT serves all families, but families served by the MIECHV Program have at least two risk factors. The MIECHV Program also provides additional supports to families such as more frequent home visits, additional screening for children and mental health services. KCKPS PAT completed 5,396 visits to 574 families during the 2013/2014 year. Nearly half of these families had two or more risk factors.
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Kansas Initiative on Developmental Ongoing Screening (KIDOS)
Building upon past work and aligning efforts with MIECHV, Kansas was awarded the federal Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems: Building Health Through Integration (ECCS) grant in 2013 to increase developmental and social emotional screenings of children birth to age three. With the slogan, "Screen Early, Start Strong," the project is called the Kansas Initiative on Developmental Ongoing Screening (KIDOS). The project involves working with communities to build and strengthen their systems and coordination for developmental screenings and referrals across sectors including pediatric health care providers, family support programs, child care and early education, early intervention services, and others. A work group of key state leaders chaired by University of Kansas Medical Center pediatrician and professor, Dr. Pam Shaw, has been convened to guide the KIDOS project. The project will be implemented in phases beginning with MIECHV (Wyandotte, Montgomery, Labette, and Cherokee counties) and Project LAUNCH (Finney County) areas. KIDOS promotes the use the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3™ and ASQ: Social-Emotional) although it does not preclude the use of other tools. Kansas communities have free access to ASQ Enterprise, a convenient online system for organizing and managing screening programs, through the project. A comprehensive Community Toolkit is being developed to provide resources, tools, and guidance to communities coordinating comprehensive developmental screening systems. Planning is underway to host a Training of Trainers on ASQ screening instruments, as well as other training opportunities.
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Motivational Interviewing Tips
The initial round of home visitor Motivational Interviewing training is complete. Motivational Interviewing helps prepare home visitors to effectively engage families through collaborative, person-centered guidance which helps to elicit and strengthen personal motivation for change. The tips below are intended to remind home visitors what was learned and help them be intentional about putting these lessons into practice.
- All parents are motivated by something. Through careful listening, we can discover what parents are motivated by and for, and use this to help them reach their goals.
- You are an expert in your field. Your parents are experts about their family. Together, two experts work together to find solutions.
- Before you give a parent information, ask them what they already know about the subject or what they have already tried. People often don't like being told what they already know.
- In giving a parent information, remember "Elicit-Provide-Elicit". ELICIT what the parent wants to know about or is concerned about. PROVIDE information. ELICIT their thoughts about the information.
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What's Happening at the State Level
State Home Visiting Leadership Group
A smaller steering group, an outcome of the strategic planning process completed by the State Home Visiting Workgroup, met for the first time in July to establish an organizational structure and initiate steps to implement the new Kansas Home Visiting Strategic Plan. The group is now known as the State Home Visiting Leadership Group and includes representatives from Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Kansas Department for Children and Families, Kansas State Department of Education, Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund, Kansas Children's Service League, Kansas Head Start Association, and the University of Kansas Center for Public Partnerships and Research.
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Upcoming Activities and Dates for MIECHV Partners
| August 18 | State Home Visiting Leadership Group, 1:00-4:00pm, KDHE, Topeka. | | August 19 | MIECHV Overview Training - Wyandotte County, 1:30-4:30pm, Unified Government Public Health Department, 3rd Floor Auditorium, Kansas City, KS. | | September 11 | Wyandotte County MIECHV Team, 1:00-4:00pm, Unified Government Public Health Department, 3rd Floor Operations Center, Kansas City, KS. | | September 12 | SE Kansas MIECHV Team, 10:00-2:00pm, Labette Center for Mental Health, Parsons. | | October 3 | State MIECHV Data/Evaluation/CQI Workgroup, 9:00-11:30am, CPPR, Lawrence, KS. | | October 29 | Wyandotte County MIECHV Team, 9:00am-12:00pm, Unified Government Public Health Department, 3rd Floor Operations Center, Kansas City, KS. | | November 7 | SE Kansas MIECHV Team, 10:00am-2:00pm, Labette Center for Mental Health, Parsons. |
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Past MIECHV Newsletters
Past newsletters have been archived and can be accessed here. |
Contact Us
If you have ideas for the newsletter, feedback, questions, comments, concerns, etc. please email kshomevisiting@ku.edu. |
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