Attachment--and loss.

Implementation science is a quickly growing discipline. Lessons learned from business and medical settings are being applied but it is unclear how well they translate to settings with different historical origins and customs (e.g., public mental health, social service, alcohol/drug sectors). The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-level, four phase model of the implementation process (i.e., Exploration, Adoption/Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment), derived from extant literature, and apply it to public sector services. We highlight features of the model likely to be particularly important in each phase, while considering the outer and inner contexts (i.e., levels) of public sector service systems.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10488-010-0327-7.pdf

Advancing a conceptual model of evidence-based practice implementation in public service sectors.

This report builds on a highly valued predecessor, the 1994 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report entitled Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders: Frontiers for Preventive Intervention Research. That report provided the basis for understanding prevention science, elucidating its then-existing research base, and contemplating where it should go in the future. This report documents that an increasing number of mental, emotional, and behavioral problems in young people are in fact preventable. The proverbial ounce of prevention will indeed be worth a pound of cure: effectively applying the evidence-based prevention interventions at hand could potentially save billions of dollars in associated costs by avoiding or tempering these disorders in many individuals. Furthermore, devoting significantly greater resources to research on even more effective prevention and promotion efforts, and then reliably implementing the findings of such research, could substantially diminish the human and economic toll.

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities

Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care: Results from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study

https://escholarship.org/content/qt1md4n1xs/qt1md4n1xs.pdf?t=nyqf8d

A comparison of kinship foster homes and foster family homes: Implications for kinship foster care as family preservation

We discuss placement stability and movement patterns among children placed in family and group foster care. Although placement stability has been a focus of child welfare policy and practice, little research explores the actual patterns of movement while a child is in out‐of‐home care. We apply event count and movement trajectory models to unravel these patterns. The models were tested with a group of children placed out of home in New York City. We provide the results of these analyses, with a description of the latent movement trajectories that characterize the movement histories of the children in the study.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/373906

Placement Stability and Movement Trajectories

Helping vulnerable children develop their full potential is an attractive idea with broad common-sense appeal. However, child well-being is a broad concept, and the legislative mandate for addressing well-being in the context of the current child welfare system is not particularly clear. This volume asserts that finding a place for well-being on the list of outcomes established to manage the child welfare system is not as easy as it first appears. The overall thrust of this argument is that policy should be evidence-based, and the available evidence is a primary focus of the book. Because policymakers have to make decisions that allocate resources, a basic understanding of incidence in the public health tradition is important, as is evidence that speaks to the question of what works clinically. The rest of the book addresses the evidence. Chapter 2 integrates bio-ecological and public health perspectives to give the evidence base coherence. Chapters 3 and 4 combine evidence from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, the Multistate Foster Care Data Archive, and the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to offer an unprecedented profile of children as they enter the child welfare system. Chapters 5 and 6 address the broad question of what works. A concluding chapter focuses on policy and future directions, suggesting that children starting out, children starting school, and children starting adolescence are high-risk populations for which explicit strategies have to be formed. This timely volume offers useful insights into the child welfare system and will be of particular interest to policymakers, academics with an interest in Child Welfare Policy, Social Work educators, and Child Advocates.

Beyond Common Sense: Child Welfare, Child Well-Being, and the Evidence for Policy Reform

Foster care caseloads around the country grew rapidly during the late 1980s. A lack of national data has made it difficult to identify the sources of this growth. In this study, we use administrative data from New York State and Illinois to demonstrate how the growth of the foster care population is related to an increase in admissions, especially among children under the age of 10. Special attention is paid to the rate of placement among infants. We also describe a dramatic increase in the number of children placed in relative foster care. The tendency of children to remain with relatives for longer periods of time contributed significantly to a drop in the number of children discharged.

Foster Care in New York and Illinois: The Challenge of Rapid Change

The fundamental question explored in this study concerns the relationship between age and the risk of placement into foster care, the likelihood a child will leave placement, and the likelihood a child will return to foster care having been discharged. The study is based on the experiences of more than 690,000 children in 11 states over an eight-year period, from 1990 to 1997. The results suggest quite strongly that very young children are at greatest risk of entry into foster care, particularly if they are from urban areas. Specifically, 1% of children under one year and 2.5% of children under the age of four months enter foster care. Moreover, once in care, children under the age of four months at the time of placement remain in foster care longer than other children. The implications of these findings for public policy and future research are discussed. RESUMEN: La pregunta fundamental que este estudio explora tiene que ver con la relacion entre la edad y el riesgo de ser colocado en un hogar ajeno con el proposito de que al infante se le preste el cuidado que necesita, las probabilidades de que el infante abandone ese nuevo hogar, y las probabilidades de que el infante regrese al sistema de cuidados prestados por un hogar ajeno despues de ser dado de baja. Este estudio se basa en la experiencia de mas de 690,000 ninos en once Estados dentro de un periodo de 8 anos que va de 1990 a 1997. Los resultados sugieren en forma muy determinante que los ninos muy jovenes se encuentran bajo un riesgo mayor de entrar bajo el cuidado de un hogar diferente al propio, particularmente si esos ninos proceden de a ´reas urbanas. Especificamente, el 1% de los ninos con menos de un ano de edad, y el 2.5% de los ninos con menos de 4 anos entran al cuidado de hogares ajenos. Es mas, una vez bajo este cuidado, los ninos que tienen menos de 4 anos de edad al momento de ser colocados bajo tal cuidado, permanecen bajo e por mas tiempo que otros ninos. Se discuten las implicaciones que estos hallazgos puedan tener en cuanto a las reglamentaciones publicas y a la investigacion en el futuro. RESUME ´ : La question fondamentale exploree dans cette etude concerne la relation entre l'age et le risque de placement dans une famille de placement, la probabiliteque l'enfant quittera le placement, ainsi que la probabiliteque l'enfant retournera dans une famille de placement apres avoir eautorisearetourner dans sa famille. Cette etude est basee sur les experiences de plus de 690 000 enfants dans 11 etats des Etats-Unis sur une periode de 8 ans, de 1990 a 1997. Les resultats suggerent tres fortement que les tres jeunes enfants sont aplus grand risque d'entrer en famille de placement, en particulier s'ils viennent de zones urbaines. Plus specifiquement, 1% des enfants de moins d'un an et 2,5% des enfants de moins de 4 mois sont places en famille de placement. De plus, une fois places, les enfants de mois de 4 mois au

Fred Wulczyn

Papers

Placement Stability and Movement Trajectories

Beyond Common Sense: Child Welfare, Child Well-Being, and the Evidence for Policy Reform

Foster Care in New York and Illinois: The Challenge of Rapid Change

The placement of infants in foster care

Unintended consequences of the push for accountability: the case of national child welfare performance standards