Research and Program Evaluations

The Innovations Institute & the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Institute research team located in the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine plays a key role in helping to ensure the quality and delivery of mental health services to children and adolescents across Maryland. The research team is involved in evaluation projects and research specifically directed to assisting the Children’s Cabinet in the creation of a full system of care for children’s mental health in Maryland.

Meet the Research & Evaluations Staff

  

Child & Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) 
Group Home & Treatment Foster Care Assessments

Principal Investigator: Sharon Stephan, Ph.D.
Project Coordinator: Sarah James, M.A.
Funded by Maryland's Transformation Grant and conducted for the Department of Human Resources (DHR), this project seeks to comprehensively understand the populations served by group homes, treatment foster care facilities, and independent living across the state. DHR has asked the Innovations Institute to develop a Level of Intensity tool for its workforce to use. This evaluation comprises several components beginning with the utilization of the CANS instrument. Using the CANS tool, the research team assesses youth's diverse spectrum of needs and strengths as well as the integral components of their familial background and community involvement.

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Evaluation

Principal Investigator: Sharon Stephan, Ph.D.
Project Coordinator: Sarah James, M.A.
Funded by MSDE, this project seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the consultation programs that work with early childhood education programs in 12 jurisdictions across Maryland and to report on child outcomes associated with the interventions. While still in its development stage, this project will begin data collection by July 2009.

Evidence Based Practice

Principal Investigator: Sharon Stephan, Ph.D.
Project Coordinator: Natalie Keegan
Under contract with the Governor's Office for Children (GOC) through the Maryland Children's Cabinet, this project seeks to support the implementation and evaluation of a variety of evidence-based practices (EBPs) being utilized throughout the state of Maryland. The evaluation has been charged with two priority goals as follows:

Goal 1: To develop a comprehensive real time listing of available EBPs by jurisdiction. As part of this goal the Innovations Institute will, under the guidance of the Children's Cabinet, determine which EBPs will be tracked, design a data system to track EBPs, including service areas, capacity and funding sources; and use data to size needed EBP capacity across the state.

Goal 2: To become the statewide hub for gathering a core set of fidelity and outcomes indicators across EBPs being implemented in the state. As part of this goal Innovations will provide guidance on collecting relevant data specific to utilization, fidelity and outcomes variables; design and implement mechanisms for gathering, monitoring, analyzing and reporting on selected data (utilization, fidelity, outcomes, as well as financial); collaborate with DHMH, MHA, and Medicaid to create codes for EBPs eligible for Medicaid funding as a means of collecting aggregate data for analysis; gather data from national EBP purveyor databases to compliment data collected through state agency databases, and create necessary outcome tools to obtain data not otherwise collected through EBP and state databases.

Transformation Impact Study

Principal Investigator: Sharon Stephan, Ph.D.
Project Coordinator: Hattie Quick, M.S.W.
Federally funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Maryland is one of nine states to have received SAMHSA's Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grant (MHT SIG), created to assist State efforts in transforming mental health systems. In Maryland, the purpose is to assess differences in caregiver reports on youth resilience among youth receiving care in residential treatment facilities compared to youth receiving Wraparound services. Caregivers are interviewed about their youths' strengths and resiliency at baseline and one-year follow-up.

Wraparound Fidelity Assessment System and Medicaid Demonstration Waiver

Principal Investigator: Sharon Stephan, Ph.D.
Project Coordinator: Hattie Quick, M.S.W.
Funded through the Governor's Office for Children (GOC), in conjunction with the Mental Hygiene Administration (MHA) within the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH).These evaluations provide the state with extensive fidelity monitoring and child level outcomes data for youth involved in Wraparound programs and Residential Treatment Centers (RTC). The data is provided through work with Wraparound Care Management Entities in four jurisdictions, as well as with public and private RTCs throughout the state. Data describing fidelity to the Wraparound model and youth/family satisfaction with services are collected through telephone interviews and in-person observations of child and family teams.

 

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