Form Direct Staff SS In Direct Staff SS In Direct Staff SS Interview Guide

OMB No. 0930-####

Expiration Date: ##/##/####

Violence Intervention To Enhance Lives (vitel) Program

evaluation

Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

Grantee Name:	__________________________________________
Grantee ID Number:	__________________________________________
Date Completed:	_______ /	_______ /	_________
	Month	Day	Year

Notice to Respondents

Public Burden Statement: 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 project is 0930-xxxx. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per respondent, per year, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 1 Choke Cherry Road, Room 2-1057, Rockville, Maryland, 20857.

Direct Services Staff Interview Introduction (2.5 minutes)

CSAT has funded XXX to conduct an Evaluation of its Violence Intervention to Enhance Lives (VITEL) program. Introduce team members, give brief description of qualifications, and describe functions during the interview.

As part of the Evaluation, we are conducting interviews with staff members of the VITEL. As evaluators, we would like to document the successes and challenges of implementing your intimate partner violence (IPV) and referral services, to better understand your VITEL program and how it will achieve improved client outcomes. We would also like to gain insight into the degree to which agency and community partnerships, linkages, and capacity will play a role in the project’s operation.

Although the Evaluation Team is funded by CSAT (as is your VITEL grant), we are not part of that federal agency (or any other federal agency). We are independent evaluators of the program.

We greatly value the information you are able to provide about your VITEL program. We have prepared some topic areas and questions on which we would like your comments. Also, please note that we are specifically interested in your VITEL program clients, services, and activities to include substance use disorder (SUD) and HIV services. Your name and title will not appear in the report unless we specifically ask for your approval. Although we are taking detailed notes, we would also like to tape record the interview in case we need to verify our notes with the interview dialogue.

Are you comfortable with this approach? Do you have any questions about what I have explained? If not, let’s get started. We expect this may take 90 minutes.

Instructions to Interviewers

The purpose of this guide is to provide an overview of the information that will be gathered through interviews with Grantee site direct services staff involved with the VITEL program. “Direct services staff” refers to staff from the Grantee organization/program who have direct contact with clients to perform SUD treatment, HIV, and/or trauma-informed screening and/or related activities. Examples of those performing direct service tasks include outreach workers, counselors, and case managers.

Direct services staff interviews may vary in format, depending on Grantee preference, and more than one individual may be present during a given interview session.

Members of the Evaluation Team will conduct the interview in a confidential setting, convenient to the interview participant(s). The interview will last approximately 90 minutes.

The goal of direct services staff interviews conducted through the course of VITEL Evaluation site visits include:

(1) Documentation of the development and changes in VITEL program operations, staffing, training and programming

(2) Improved understanding of program, agency, and community capacity changes that developed and/or resulted from VITEL activities

(3) Exploration of changes in the number or nature of partnerships and collaborations both internal and external to the VITEL program agency

Final interview guides for each specific Grantee will be customized based on the knowledge and role of each individual interviewee and the nature of individual Grantee’s program(s). The information gathered from this interview will be used to better understand how the VITEL funded program intends to operate in this setting and will be synthesized with information gathered from other VITEL Grantees to inform the Evaluation of the VITEL program.

Following completion of the direct services staff interview, the interviewer(s) should complete the Interviewer Checklist form to validate that each interview section topic was covered through the course of interview proceedings. Space is also provided to record: other germane topics discussed during the course of the direct services staff interview, a listing of any documents received, assorted observations regarding interview proceedings, and additional notes/comments relating to the interview.

For ease of future qualitative analysis coding and thematic content analysis, any Key Findings/Themes that appeared through the course of the interview should also be recorded in Interviewer Checklist form, in its associated content section. The associated page number note references and a listing of respondents whose statements support reported findings should also be noted, where applicable.

I. Involvement (*Understand what they do, how long they have been doing it, and how vested they are in the program) (2.5 minutes)

I’d like to ask you about your overall involvement with and your specific role in the VITEL program.

A. First of all, how would you please describe your current role in the VITEL program? (e.g., case manager, counselor, outreach worker, intake worker)

PROBE 1: Did your role change significantly over the past 11 months? If so, please describe how?

B. What are your day-to-day functions in delivering VITEL services to clients?

II. Community/Contextual Conditions (*Understand the community environment in which a Grantee operates, substance abuse levels, drugs of choice, characteristics of the target population community) (10 minutes)

Please provide us with some information regarding the characteristics of the community your program operates in and serves.

A. Please provide an overview of the community including characteristics of the community where <insert Grantee name here> is located. Community characteristics could include: economics, employment, education, politics, housing, medical, and public health, psychosocial, behavioral.

PROBE 1: How would you describe IPV in the community where your agency is located?

PROBE 2: How would you describe the substance abuse related problems in the community where your agency is located?

PROBE 3: How would you describe the HIV/AIDS related problems in the community where your agency is located?

PROBE 4: How would you describe the target group for the VITEL program (Descriptors might include gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, IPV risk, substance abuse risk, HIV risk, employment status)?

PROBE 5: How would you describe the poverty and unemployment issues in the community where your agency is located?

III. Program Description: IPV Screening & Referral Services and Interventions (*Understand IPV/trauma-informed program activities.) (30 minutes)

We would like to better understand the IPV screening and related referral program services that your agency offers to clients through its VITEL program.

A. Please tell me about the IPV outreach, screening, and referral services you provided as part of your VITEL program.

PROBE 1: What did you do as part of your IPV outreach, screening and referral services?

PROBE 2: Please describe any services and activities that you provided which target IPV risk behaviors.

PROBE 3: How often were IPV outreach, screening, and referral services provided?

PROBE 4: What types of materials did you use during your IPV outreach, screening, and referral services?

C. Did you use any pre-client/client screening assessments to detect substance use and mental disorders?

PROBE 1: If so, what screening assessments did you use for substance use and for mental disorders?

D. Please describe a typical IPV outreach, screening, and referral encounter.

Let’s talk about HIV and hepatitis counseling and testing services.

1. Can you describe the HIV and viral hepatitis counseling and testing services that are provided here?

PROBE 1: Can you tell me about what you did as part of the VITEL program related to HIV and viral hepatitis testing and counseling services?

2. What barriers and facilitators did you face when providing HIV and viral hepatitis testing and counseling services?

These next questions are about the program’s linkages and referral processes.

1. Was a directory used that listed local organizations or facilities that provide IPV or trauma-informed, SUD, HIV, Hepatitis, and other supportive services? If so,, how many were contacted and subsequently used as a linkage/referral resource? How was it determined which organization(s) to contact?

2. Was there a network or consortium in which coordination of HIV/AIDS–related services among partners was facilitated or discussed? IF NO CONSORTIUM EXISTS:

PROBE 1: Did you think this is something that would have been helpful? If so,, how or why?

PROBE 2: If so, which types of organizations could have participated in this consortium?

3. Did your organization or facility use a referral system to accept client and/or link clients to IPV or trauma-informed, SUD, HIV, Hepatitis, and other supportive services?

4. Please describe the method(s) and the processes used to refer and track clients.

PROBE 1: Who identified and made referrals?

PROBE 2: What types of services were clients being referred for?

PROBE 3: Who usually followed up with a client on referral?

5. Were clients ever referred back to this organization or facility for follow-up after referral services were received? If so, explain the process.

PROBE 1: Were the clients that were referred back to you documented in a register? IF SO, please describe.

PROBE 2: Please describe the methods used to refer clients back to the grantee organization.

6. How did providers at the receiving organization know that a client was referred to them?

PROBE 1: How did your organization know that a client completed a referral?

PROBE 2: How is communication facilitated between your agency and the receiving agency?

PROBE 3: What information is shared between each agency such as referral outcomes for referred clients?

PROBE 4: Please describe your organization’s system to measure and record time lapses between when a referral was made and when a client reached the receiving provider?

7. How were referral, referral compliance, and counter-referral rates documented and used? IF NOT, why not?

8. How were staff trained on referral protocols?

PROBE 1: What did it cover? When did it occur?

PROBE 2: Who participated in the training? Was there a follow-up or refresher training? If not, why not?

9. Please describe the considerations made to ensure client confidentiality.

10. How was client satisfaction with the referral process assessed?

IV. Program Description: Staffing & IPV Training (*Understand IPV/trauma-informed program activities.) (15 minutes)

These next questions are about training and technical assistance.

1. Please tell us about any training or technical assistance that you received to implement your VITEL program.

PROBE 1: What type of training did you receive to implement your IPV interventions? If none, why not?

PROBE 2: Who provided the training?

PROBE 3: How were training sessions offered?

PROBE 4: Did you request or have technical assistance? If so, did the technical assistance and training you received meet your expectations? If not, how can either the technical assistance or training be improved?

PROBE 5: Was the timing of the training appropriate?

PROBE 6: How could the training and technical assistance process be improved?

V. Program Description: Cultural Competency (*Understand IPV/trauma-informed program activities.) (2.5 minutes)

I’d like to ask you a few questions about cultural competency or cultural appropriateness.

1. What strategies and approaches did your program engage in to ensure that clients received culturally appropriate services?

PROBE 1: How did you know the program was culturally appropriate?

PROBE 2: How were materials developed or adapted that represent the clients you served?

VI. Partnerships/Collaborators (* Understand staff perception of partners/collaborators) (10 minutes)

This section describes the development of partnerships and collaborations that will or have occurred within the context of the VITEL program. (Partnerships and collaborations refer to organizations/agencies that have an MOU/MOA with your agency and provide services to your VITEL clients.)

1. [Skip this question for internally referred services]What are your impressions of any partnerships and collaborative efforts stemming from the VITEL Program?

PROBE 1: Did the formation of partnerships contribute to the overall success of the VITEL program?

PROBE 2: What services did your partners/collaborators provide to clients?

PROBE 3: How did partnerships and collaborations influence the VITEL program?

PROBE 4: Did you meet regularly with a representative from the partnering agency/agencies to review level of service delivery?

2. Please describe the effect or impact these partnerships and collaborations had on the overall community IPV, SUD and HIV service capacity.

VII. Barriers and Facilitators (*Probe for barriers and facilitators that VITEL Grantees may/have faced through the course of implementing their programs) (10 minutes)

Finally, we would like to collect some information regarding any barriers and facilitators you anticipate facing over the next 11 month that might influence your VITEL program.

1. What barriers and challenges did you face through the course of implementing your VITEL program?

2. How did you meet those challenges?

3. What is the most positive aspect of the VITEL program thus far?

Finally, we would like to collect some information regarding any facilitators you may/have faced that might influence your VITEL program.

4. What facilitators did you encounter during the course of implementing your VITEL program?

5. What steps, if any, did your agency take to support any facilitators you identified?

VIII. Closing (2 minutes)

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Is there anything else that you would like to add regarding the VITEL program or the evaluation?

DIRECT STAFF INTERVIEWER FORMS

The following are forms that should be completed by the interviewer(s) and is not part of the actual Direct Service Staff Interview.

Post-Interview Note Summary Completion Documents [Completed by Interviewer]

Table: Survey Topics Covered in Interview and Key Findings/Themes
	Section	Key Interview Findings/Themes by Topic Area	Respondents Supporting Finding*	Supporting Page(s) in Notes
	Involvement
	Community/ Contextual Conditions
	Program Description: (IPV Screening & Referral
	HIV & Viral Hepatitis Testing
	Linkages & Referral System)
	Staffing and IPV Training
	Cultural Competence/ Appropriateness
	Partnerships/ Collaborators
	Barriers & Facilitators
* Code respondents based on Face Sheet numbering: Respondent 1 as R1, Respondent 2 as R2, etc. (e.g., Statements by R1 supported Key Theme 1)

Other Topic Areas Discussed

Listing of Documents Obtained

Observations Regarding Interview Setting (e.g., Description of Location, Disruptions, etc.)

Observations Regarding Interview Respondents (e.g., Engagement Level, Recalcitrance, etc.)

Additional Notes and Comments

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