Ohio Community Collaboration Model for School Improvement (OCCMSI)… [$2.7 million; 2004-2007]
Dawn Anderson-Butcher, and a team she has assembled, are now in the fourth year of an effort funded by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to improve schools. Through training, technical assistance and evaluation activities funds for several projects have aimed to increase parental involvement, enhance community assets, and build relationships within and between the school and the larger community. In the 21 st century schools will play an increasingly important role as a pivotal point for community life and will face many challenges as they deal with a range of human conditions and issues in addition to educating children. This project is at the forefront of innovative community building activities that will help to shape the future of community schools. To learn more about OCCMSI, visit http://www.csw.ohio-state.edu/occmsi/index.htm
Project Outcomes: Improving Educational and Well-being Outcomes for Ohio’s Children
Protecting Children at Risk… [$1.1 million; 2005-2007]
Scottye Cash and colleagues, Celeste Burke and Thomas Gregoire, are in the second year of an evaluation project aimed at understanding how well a new protocol introduced by The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services [ODJFS] helps case workers in Child Welfare agencies accurately assess risk and safety for children in families at risk for abuse and/or neglect. The protocol adopts an innovative approach to risk assessment by combining two distinct strategies: actuarial and clinical or consensus-based methods. Using information from ongoing evaluation activities the protocol has been and will continue to be modified as it is implemented statewide. Findings from this study will be used to inform efforts underway nationally to better protect children from abuse and neglect.
Thomas Gregoire and Celeste Burke have worked on a number of projects in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services [ODADAS]. Currently they are working on an effort to use social indicators to develop models estimating the need for services in the 50 Alcohol Drug Abuse Services [ADAS] areas in Ohio. These models will be used to assist state and local providers understand how the underlying need for services relates to existing patterns of service utilization statewide. They are also working on a new project aimed at determining how providers are assigning clients to various levels of care ranging from outpatient services that are the least intensive & restrictive to the most intensive & restrictive: long-term residential services.
Understanding how mutual aid interactions change behavior… [$412,500; pending] Keith Warren and a colleague in the natural sciences are interested in trying to understand how mutual aid-oriented interventions like Therapeutic Communities [TC] change behavior. In TCs participants learn to affirm and correct one another reshaping their behavior and support sobriety in the process. Using administrative data for tens of thousands of interactions among residents in 5 community-based correctional facilities [CBCF] around Ohio, efforts will be made to model interactions and better understand not just whether but how such interactions work to change behavior.
Mental Health
Creating recovery cultures in mental health settings…[$89,000; Pending]
Theresa Early and Keith Warren are seeking funds from the Ohio Department of Mental Health [ODMH] to exploring the extent to which psychiatric facilities in Ohio have adopted an organizational culture oriented toward recovery. Beliefs about what recovery means have changed in the mental health system since the dramatic shift from institutional to community care in the 80s. Moreover, such beliefs continue to evolve as consumers and their family members have more input about what’s needed to support and promote recovery and as research identifies factors that appear to be related in important ways to better outcomes for persons with severe and persistent mental illness.
Clinical Mental Health Demonstration Model: Exploring the effectiveness of treatment for children and adolescents...[$160,500 2004-2006]
Mo Yee Lee and Gilbert Greene are just completing a study funded by the Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH) examining the effectiveness of Family Community Systems Therapy [FCST]. This initiative aims to address the need for intensive treatment for some children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems. Traditionally more intensive treatment has taken place in residential facilities often at a distance from the child’s family. Providing more intensive care to such children and adolescents in a community based setting makes it possible to involve family members in the treatment process. FCST may provide another strategy for expanding the continuum of care in the mental health system for children and adolescents.
Aging
How services effect outcomes for elders in adult day care settings… [$100,000; 2004-2007]
Holly Dabelko has received funding from the prestigious Hartford Foundation to support her interest about how service utilization is related to outcomes for elders in adult day care settings. Adult day care is a relatively new alternative for elders on the continuum of care. Such services may provide supervision and support that make it possible for elders to remain in their own homes longer, preventing early placement in a more restrictive setting. It may also provide respite care during the day so that a family caregiver can continue to work and care for an aging spouse or parent. This study aims at trying to determine what mix of services and supports promotes the best outcomes for elders in these settings.
Coordinating care for elders in assisted living … [$75,000; 2006-2007]
Shantha Balaswamy and Holly Dabelko are being funded by National Church Residences [NCR] in an effort to determine whether coordination of care increases services utilization, improves the quality of life and enhances length of stay for elders in assisted living residences. Finding ways to support elders in the community has important repercussions for policy and practice as the percentage of elders in the U.S. population continues to increase. This study examines the value of placing care coordinators in assisted living facilities as a mechanism for improving outcomes for elders.
Connecting People, Education, Services and Quality of Life: The Professional Service Coordinator Certificate Program ... [$22,500]
These partners propose to provide on-line education and training for community-based practitioners so that older adults in their care can live as independently as possible for as long as possible, thus reducing unnecessary nursing home placement. A grant of $22,500 supports program development that targets service coordinators and social service professionals, 4,000 of who have no formal education program providing discipline-specific training. Bonnie Kantor, Director, Office of Geriatrics and Gerontology, College of Medicine and Public Health
Partners: Janice Monks, Executive Director, American Association of Service Coordinators Terry Allton, Vice President of Support Services, National Church Residences Lee Ann Mjelde-Mossey, Assistant Professor, College of Social Work
Christine Price, Assistant Professor, OSU Extension Gerontology Specialist and OSU College of Human Ecology Virginia Richardson, Professor, College of Social Work
Patricia Schwirian, Professor Emeritus, College of Nursing
Margaret Teaford, Assistant Professor, School of Allied Medical Professions
