How Important are Early Intervention Service Coordinators in the Lives of Families

1
How Important are Early Intervention Service
Coordinators in the Lives of Families?
Richard N. Roberts, Principal Investigator Diane
D. Behl, Co-Principal Investigator Linda D.
Goetze, Economist Rachel L. Johnson, Graduate
Research Assistant Melissa Gordon Emily
Nordfelt, Research Assistants Early Intervention
Research Institute Utah State University Logan,
UT 84322-6580 richard.roberts_at_usu.edu diane.behl_at_
usu.edu
2
Research Questions

• How does service coordination support child and
  family well being?
• Does the service coordination model make a
  difference?
• What are the costs of service coordination?

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One-Stop Shopping Model
Family
One-Stop Center Provides

• Evaluation
• IFSP Development
• Service Coordination
• Primary and Secondary Health Care, Physicians
• Child Therapies/Development Specialist
• Mental Health

• Parent Training/Support
• Social Services
• Head Start/Daycare
• Public Health
• School District Offices

4
Combined Roles Model
Family
Primary Early Intervention Program Provides

• Evaluation Eligibility Determination
• Service Coordination
• IFSP Development
• Child Therapies
• Parent Training/Support

Services Linked/Piggy Backed
Social Services
School District (Part B)
Public Health
Mental Health/ Counseling
5
Independent Model
Family
Service Coordinator Provides

• Evaluation Eligibility Determination
• Service Coordination
• IFSP Development
• Child Therapies
• Parent Training/Support

6
Conceptual Framework
Contextual Variables
Community Characteristics
System Characteristics
Service Coordinator Characteristics
Outcomes
Systems Outcomes1
Direct Service Outcomes1
Child and Family Outcomes2
1Relates to OSERS GPRA Part C Objective 1
2Relates to OSERS GPRA Part C Objective
2 Additional components/variations on Kagan et
al. (1995) model
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What are the Community Characteristics?
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Service Coordinator Characteristics
Self reported years experience in service
coordination
Self reported level of education
Key 1 HS 4 MA 2 AA 5 PhD 3 BA
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Service Coordinator Caseload
Per 1.0 FTE Mean
A
E
C
F
D
B
ANOVA by model (p.000) t-Tests
One-Stop/Indep. (p.000) One-Stop/CR
(NS) Indep./CR (p.000)
10
Service Coordinator Activity Time Diary
of total time spent per activity
11
Frequency of Contact with Service Coordinator
A Likert Scale was used ranging from 1 several
times a week to 7 every 7-12 months.
12
Mean Number of Different Services Reported by
Families
of Services
A
E
B
C
D
F
(4.00)
13
Child Health and Development Outcomes

• ANOVA results indicate no statistically
  significant differences between models or sites.
• Paired sample t-tests were used here to determine
  any significant differences within site and model
  changes in development.

Statistically significant change from Time 1 to
Time 2 (p lt .05).
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Child Health and Development Outcomes
of families reporting that their child has made
progress over the last 12 months (N 201)
15
Child Health and Development Outcomes
of families reporting improvement in childs
health over the last 12 months (N 200)
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Family Well-Being Outcomes
Ease of contacting Service Coordinator/making
changes
A
C
E
B
D
F
ANOVA by model (plt.01) t-Tests One-Stop/Indep.
(p.006) One-Stop/CR (NS)
Indep./CR (p.000)
17
Family Well-Being Outcomes
Early Intervention program fit with family routine
C
E
A
B
D
F
ANOVA by model (plt.01) t-Tests One-Stop/Indep.
(NS) One-Stop/CR (NS)
Indep./CR (p.000)
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Family Well-Being Outcomes
Service Coordinator as helpful
C
A
E
B
D
F
ANOVA by model (plt.01) t-Tests One-Stop/Indep.
(p.044) One-Stop/CR (NS)
Indep./CR (p.014)
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Costs of Service Coordination (per child
estimates)
Factors personnel salaries, qualifications,
caseloads, sources of funding, indirect rates,
etc.
20
How Important are Service Coordinators in the
Lives of Families?

• All families report high levels of support,
  understanding, and access to services due to
  service coordination.
• Families who have independent service
  coordinators appear to feel less support than
  other SC models.
• There are no statistically significant
  differences between models in regard to child
  development. However, data were incomplete for
  some sites.

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What are the Next Steps in this Research?

• Analyze the relationship among models, services
  provided, and child severity/diagnosis.
• Explore the family characteristics that influence
  services provided and outcomes.
• Replicate the study in other communities.
• Explore other SC models.
• Early intervention programs and researchers need
  to be armed with evidence that SC and EI are
  achieving desired outcomes.