Appendix B. Chair of Local Child Wellness Council Interview Guide
We have revised the interview guides to tailor them to each respondent type, to eliminate questions deemed unnecessary for the evaluation based on earlier data collection, and to add questions as a result of what we learned about the Project LAUNCH program in the earlier data collection and address emerging issues such as health reform and new federal programs and initiatives. All new questions fall within the domains covered in previous interview guides. Overall, the revisions made to the interview guides reduce the burden on respondents, because both the number of questions in each interview guide is reduced and questions are more specific. Table 1 below outlines the new questions we have added by domain.
Table 1
New Questions by Domain
Domain |
Questions |
Role in LAUNCH |
6) What motivated you to collaborate with LAUNCH? 9) Have any adaptations you made in order to receive the enhancements offered by LAUNCH affected your cost/level of effort to provide the services you program offered before LAUNCH? |
Child Wellness Council |
11) Has your Local Child Wellness Council served as an advisory body for any other local initiatives, either now or in the past? 12) [If answered “yes” to 11] Has the Council’s involvement in other initiatives changed since the beginning of LAUNCH? If yes, please describe and explain. 17) How does the Child Wellness Council ensure that the voices of parents/needs of families are taken into consideration? What have been the successes and challenges related to this? |
Systems Change |
22) On balance, looking across all of the LAUNCH-supported efforts, is your project’s overall focus on promotion, prevention, or treatment? Has this focus shifted since the beginning of LAUNCH? If so, how and why? 24) Have health care reform or major changes in the states’ approach to health care for low-income families with children affected the implementation of LAUNCH? If so how? 25) Has the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) initiative affected the implementation of LAUNCH? If so, how? Are any of the agencies funded by LAUNCH or other major stakeholders also recipients of this funding? If yes, which agencies? 26) Looking across all LAUNCH activities, have there been special efforts to focus on/include parents with children who are 5-8? If yes, please describe. 27) With respect to LAUNCH’s efforts to focus on school-age children (5-8) what, if any efforts have been made to reach out to/include school districts in LAUNCH activities? What are the barriers? How have you addressed these barriers? |
Sustainability |
31) What aspects of LAUNCH do you think have the highest probability of being sustained? How are they likely to be sustained? |
Final Thoughts |
34) From your perspective, what has been the most surprising or unexpected aspect of being involved in LAUNCH? 35) Is there anything that I did not ask you about but think I should know to understand how LAUNCH is being implemented in your community? |
Project LAUNCH
Chair of Local Child Wellness Council Interview Guide
Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) is a Federal grant program administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The program’s goal is to promote the social, emotional, behavioral, and physical health and cognitive development of young children from birth to 8 years of age. We are conducting a national evaluation of Project LAUNCH on behalf of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and SAMHSA, which are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the evaluation is to collect information related to state, tribal, and community systems development; implementation of evidence-based services in local communities; and service and system outcomes for children, families, and providers. Findings from the national evaluation will be used by ACF and SAMHSA to guide future program directions and to report on program implementation and outcomes.
Participation in this interview is voluntary and any information you provide will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. The interview will require approximately 60 minutes of your time. Any questions you may have about this burden estimate and any suggestions for reducing this burden should be directed to Laura Hoard (202-401-4561) at ACF.
An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 0970-XXXX and it expires XX/XX/XXXX.
Site:
Respondent(s) (Name, Organization, role):
Abt Interviewer(s):
Date:
Role in LAUNCH
In addition to you being the chair of Child Wellness Council, does your agency have additional involvement in LAUNCH?
☐ Yes
☐ No
[If yes]Please describe your agency’s role:
☐ My agency receives LAUNCH funding [Ask questions 3-5]
☐ My agency receives services provided by consultants and others that are supported by LAUNCH funds [Ask questions 6-9]
[Ask if respondent’s agency receives LAUNCH funding]
What, specifically, are your activities that are funded by LAUNCH?
What have been your successes in terms of implementation of these services? Why do you think you were successful?
What have been the challenges in terms of implementation of these services? How have you worked to overcome these challenges?
[Ask if respondent’s agency receives services supported by LAUNCH]
What motivated you to collaborate with LAUNCH?
Were there any ways that you had to adapt/change your services in order to receive the additional enhancements offered by LAUNCH? [ask questions 8 and 9 if yes]
In what ways did you have to change the way your services were implemented? [Probe for changes in coordination, monitoring/oversight]
Have any adaptations you made in order to receive the enhancements offered by LAUNCH affected your cost/level of effort to provide the services you program offered before LAUNCH? (If yes, probe for more details.)
Child Wellness Council
Was the Local Child Wellness Council newly formed for Project LAUNCH?
☐ Yes
☐ No
If yes, What has been the advantage of starting your own council rather than having an existing advisory group [provide name of other advisory group, if known] assume this role for Project LAUNCH?
Has your Local Child Wellness Council served as an advisory body for any other local initiatives, either now or in the past?
☐ Yes
☐ No
If yes, please describe explain
[If answered “yes” to 11] Has the Council’s involvement in other initiatives changed since the beginning of LAUNCH?
☐ Yes
☐ No
If yes, please describe and explain
In addition to that, are there other initiatives/goals they have pursued?
☐ Yes
☐ No
If yes, please describe and explain
Have there been major changes to the composition of your Council in the last year?
☐ Yes
☐ No
If yes, please explain
Has the state representative [insert name from last year’s guide] continued to participate in the local council? What role does he/she serve? [Probes: shares information about relevant state-level activities; provides advice and guidance to local LAUNCH activities; brings local LAUNCH issues to attention of state decision makers]
How has the presence (or absence) of a state representative made a difference in services delivery? In systems change accomplishments? (Describe how)
How does the Child Wellness Council ensure that the voices of parents/needs of families are taken into consideration? What have been the successes and challenges related to this?
What have been the major successes of the Child Wellness Council?
What have been its major challenges and how have you worked to overcome them?
Systems Change
(a) In terms of systems change, what have been your major areas of focus in the last year? (check all that apply) [Site visitors should know a lot of this already but confirm that the site isn’t doing each of the things where you don’t think there is any activity Note: if they say something about changing policies or regulation, drill down to what the policy or regulation is designed to do.]
☐ Improving the quality of direct service programs (e.g., ensuring that programs are evidence-based, are implemented with fidelity)
☐ System-wide implementation of LAUNCH-supported program enhancements (e.g., cultural enhancements such as addition of staff who speak the language of targeted families, materials in other languages, conducting screening/assessment in Spanish; family partners/case management)
☐ Implementation of developmental screening/assessments
Across programs within a single setting (e.g., home visiting, family strengthening, etc.)
Across settings and programs
☐ Creating data systems to support care coordination, referral systems, evaluation
☐ Implementing standardized training/accreditation for providers community-wide (beyond what LAUNCH is doing related to training/supporting providers for specific direct services)
☐ Enhancing 211 and other information and referral systems
☐ Increasing collaboration/linkages among systems/service providers/stakeholders
☐ Other [specify] [Ask whether the activities you’ve asked about capture all of the systems change activities that LAUNCH is involved in within the community, or if there are other activities. If you are in doubt if it’s really a systems change, document it anyway.]
For each box checked
Indicate Topic Area________________________
What is the ultimate goal of this systems change? (Probe for: to implement the systems change across programs within a setting, to implement the systems change across programs throughout the entire county, other)
What has been accomplished to date?
Are you on schedule, ahead of schedule or behind schedule?
If ahead or behind, probe for why (e.g., changes in leadership at the state or local level, changes in available funding, new program opportunities)
To what extent has LAUNCH been responsible for the systems change (check one):
☐ LAUNCH initiated and leads the systems change activity
☐ Systems change activity began prior to LAUNCH and LAUNCH is a participant along with other agencies/stakeholders
☐ Systems change activity began after LAUNCH and LAUNCH is a participant along with other agencies/stakeholders
On a scale from 1 to 4, what has been LAUNCH’s role in the systems change activity:
☐ 1 (minor role)
☐ 2 (more than a minor role, but not a significant role)
☐ 3 (significant role, but not the lead)
☐ 4 (lead role)
[Important note: Prior to the interview, format your guide by copying and pasting question 20 (b)-(g) for all of the systems changes you know about, with at least two more blank sets. Label each of the changes according to the bolded words in 20 (a)]
What has been the role of the Local Child Wellness Council in each of the systems change activities named above?
On balance, looking across all of the LAUNCH-supported efforts, is your project’s overall focus on promotion, prevention, or treatment? [Promotion: Efforts to enhance any individuals’ socio-emotional development. Prevention: Interventions or activities targeting individuals or subgroups at high risk or higher risk than average of developing mental or behavioral health disorders. Treatment: Services provided to individuals with a diagnosed disorder or behavior problem.]
Has this focus shifted since the beginning of LAUNCH? If so, how and why?
What external factors, if any, have affected the direction of LAUNCH within the community? [Probe for: the recession, political factors, state and/or local budget cuts, new federal or state legislation, new funding streams, staff turnover, changing needs of families, etc.] How have these factors affected overall LAUNCH implementation?
Have health care reform or major changes in the states’ approach to health care for low-income families with children affected the implementation of LAUNCH? If so how? [Ask this question if not previously covered. If covered, after interview write response in more than one place]
Has the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) initiative affected the implementation of LAUNCH? If so, how? Are any of the agencies funded by LAUNCH or other major stakeholders also recipients of this funding? If yes, which agencies?
Looking across all LAUNCH activities, have there been special efforts to focus on/include parents with children who are 5-8? If yes, please describe.
With respect to LAUNCH’s efforts to focus on school-age children (5-8) what, if any efforts have been made to reach out to/include school districts in LAUNCH activities? What are the barriers? How have you addressed these barriers?
D. Sustainability
[Provide/summarize your understanding of how the grantee is approaching sustainability and ask any questions related to sustainability to fill in gaps.]
Do you have a sustainability plan?
☐ Yes
☐ No
Have there been changes in your approach to sustainability from last year in each of the following areas?
☐ Funding
☐ Workforce development
☐ Infrastructure development
☐ Promotion
☐ Other
What have been your accomplishments to date in terms of meeting your strategies to achieve LAUNCH sustainability?
What aspects of LAUNCH do you think have the highest probability of being sustained? How are they likely to be sustained?
What aspects of LAUNCH do you think run the highest risk of not being sustained? Have you made special plans/taken particular approaches in regard to these?
E. Final Thoughts
[Ask only if SAMHSA has plans to fund a new cohort] As you may know, SAMHSA is funding an additional cohort of grantees. From your experience, what are the top three lessons that you have learned that you would want to share with them to enhance their prospects for being successful in meeting their goals?
From your perspective, what has been the most surprising or unexpected aspect of being involved in LAUNCH?
Is there anything that I did not ask you about but think I should know to understand how LAUNCH is being implemented in your community? (If yes probe for what it is and why.)
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | DHHS |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-29 |