News Archives
NPC Study Shows Continuing Efficacy of Healthy Start Services Demonstrated by Low Maltreatment Rates of Families Served by the Program
NPC Research recently published a report showing the impact of Oregon’s Health Start program in reducing child maltreatment. Results for the 2007-08 fiscal year showed the largest difference in maltreatment rates between Healthy Start families and the Oregon general population ever documented by the evaluation. Importantly, this difference was concentrated among the higher risk Intensive Service families, who had an overall maltreatment rate of only 13 per 1000, compared with 25 per 1000 in the Oregon general population of 0- to 3-year-olds. Maltreatment rates for Healthy Start higher risk, Intensive Service families dropped below the rate of maltreatment for the general 0-3 population for the third year in a row. Given the high-risk status of the Intensive Service group, this finding provides the strongest support to date for the efficacy of Healthy Start services in preventing maltreatment on those most at risk. View the Maltreatment report>
Learn more about the latest Healthy Start evaluation by visiting the following links to access the 2007-08 Status Report and related items:
Report | Executive Summary | Appendices | Service Implementation Fact Sheet | Outcomes Fact Sheet
Collaborative Study Launched to Identify Return on Investments Associated with Oregon’s Relief Nurseries' Postive Outcomes
NPC Research is partnering with Family Building Blocks (Salem) and the Children's Relief Nursery (Portland) to develop and implement a 3-year Community-Based, Participatory Research (CBPR) project to begin to answer the question: What are the long-term returns on investments that can be expected from the Relief Nurseries? Funded by the Northwest Health Foundation, the project will collect information that will be used to form the foundation for legislative and community advocacy to expand support for the Relief Nursery model across Oregon. The study follows an evaluation by NPC showing that Oregon's Relief Nursery services are effective in reducing family risk factors, promoting family well-being, improving the quality of parenting, and reducing the level of involvement of families with child welfare services. More>
Relief Nurseries Improve Child Welfare Outcomes and Promote Literacy
NPC has released the Year 2 report on the evaluation of Oregon's Relief Nurseries. One of the key goals of the Relief Nurseries is to reduce families’ level of involvement with the child welfare system, by working to reduce risk factors for child maltreatment, and helping to stabilize families so that children can live safely with their parents. Relief Nursery children were more likely than children statewide to be reunified with their parents. The evaluation also found that Relief Nurseries improved parenting among parents who received services for 1 year. Parents in Relief Nurseries also showed a 117% increase in how often they read to their young children, a critical activity that provides the foundation for later language and literacy outcomes. Learn more by visiting the following links:Report | Executive Summary | Key Findings
NPC Evaluation of Healthy Start Shows Reduction in Child Maltreatment
The evaluation of the Oregon's Healthy Start program, the state's largest child abuse prevention program, has documented that families served by Healthy Start have a reduced rate of child maltreatment. This is true even in the face of escalating maltreatment rates in Oregon and nationally. For example, since 2003, the child abuse rates for children birth through age 2 who are not in Healthy Start have been almost double the rate for children who are in Healthy Start. This year, the incidence of child abuse for children in Healthy Start is two and a half times less than for children not in the program. Learn more by visiting the following links:Report | Executive Summary | Appendices | Service Implementation Fact Sheet | Outcomes Fact Sheet
Michigan Presentations Detail Effectiveness of Drug Courts and Practices to Lowering Recidivism and Cost
At the recent Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals Annual Conference, NPC Senior Research Associate Shannon Carey gave two presentations based on the findings and lessons learned from evaluations of drug courts in Michigan, California, Maryland, Oregon, and Guam. One of the presentations defined cost-benefit analysis and described the steps involved in performing NPC’s approach called Transactional and Institutional Cost analysis. A preview of the new component of the Michigan DCCMIS called the DCCAT (Drug Court Cost Analysis Tool) was presented with an overview of how it works and how to use it. View these presentations (see Feb. 2009 listings).
NIJ-Funded Study Documents Effects of Providing Offenders With Substance-Free Transitional Housing Services
NPC Research, with funding from the National Institute of Justice, investigated the self-sufficiency, community adjustment, substance use, and criminal recidivism outcomes for substance-abusing offenders served through the Washington County (Oregon) Community Corrections Department to document the value added of providing substance-free transitional housing services. The WCCC received federal funding to provide offenders with substance-free transitional housing. For more information, please see the Final Report and Key Findings.
Presentations at New England Conference Detail Successes and Challenges of Drug Courts
Shannon Carey and Mike Finigan attended the New England Association of Drug Court Professionals conference on October 20 and 21, 2008. They presented information on adult, juvenile and family treatment drug courts. View the presentations.
Evaluation of Child Care Enhancement Project Suggests Increased Quality in Project Child Care Providers
NPC Research just completed a 3-year evaluation of the Lane County (Oregon) Child Care Enhancement Project (CCEP). CCEP provided subsidies to parents to help with child care expenses and provided training, technical assistance, wage enhancements, and other supports to child care providers. Evaluation results suggest that family child care providers who participated in the project showed increased quality (compared to control providers) in several domains, including support for early language development and social-emotional development. For more information, please see the Final Report and Key Findings.
NPC Publishes Results of Evaluation of the Multnomah County Child Care Community Fund
NPC Research has completed the first year of a 3-year evaluation of the Multnomah County Child Care Community Fund, which is providing training and technical assistance and wage enhancements to child care providers along with subsidies to families to help cover the cost of child care. For a description of the project and characteristics of the participating child care providers, please see the Year 1 Evaluation Report.
Conference Presentations Address Impact of Drug Courts on Recidivism and Costs and the Effectiveness of Family Treatment Drug Courts and Juvenile Drug Courts
NPC researchers Shannon Carey, Michael Finigan, and Juliette Mackin presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) in St. Louis, MO, on May 29, 2008. They discussed drug court practices and their impact on recidivism and costs. Among other findings, they noted that courts using evaluation feedback to make modifications to the drug court program had 4 times greater cost savings. The researchers also pointed out that drug courts providing formal training for all team members had 5 times greater savings. View the presentation: Powerpoint.
A second presentation at the NADCP conference focused on the effectiveness of family treatment drug courts and juvenile drug courts. NPC researchers Finigan, Scott Burrus, Carey, and Mackin explained that FTDC parents are more likely to enter treatment, spend more time in treatment, and complete treatment. Among other findings, they noted that FTDC children were more likely to be reunified with their parents at the end of the case. View the presentation: Powerpoint.
Evaluation of Harford County Family Recovery Court Finds Positive Child Welfare, Treatment, and Criminal Justice Outcomes, and Potential Cost Savings
NPC Research recently completed a 2-year evaluation of the Harford County, Maryland Family Recovery Court (FRC). This evaluation included a process, outcome, and cost component. Results from the evaluation indicate that program participation may result in less foster care utilization, increased likelihood of reunification and substance use treatment completion, and decreased use of criminal justice resources. During this study we found that FRC families utilized less foster care and were more likely to achieve reunification; therefore, these FRC cases were less costly to the child welfare system than other child welfare cases. Further, as FRC parents use fewer criminal justice resources, the total cost savings per year of Harford County FRC operations was nearly $317,000, or approximately $12,000 per served family. See Executive Summary. See Final Report.
Training and Resources Guide for Transition to Kindergarten Released
The Transition to Kindergarten Research Team, led by Beth Green, NPC Vice President and Senior Research Associate, has published a Training and Resources Guide packed with presentations, activities, recommendations, and best practices. The Transforming Transitions to Kindergarten project focuses on supporting children to have the social and emotional skills they need to make the difficult adjustment from preschool to kindergarten. The researchers have been developing and testing a two-pronged intervention focused on (1) providing training to preschool staff, mental health professionals, and program managers to enhance their capacity to implement effective early childhood mental health and transition services; and (2) implementing a family-driven, team-based approach to supporting successful transitions for children with emotional and behavioral challenges. The project is run through the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health at Portland State University, funded in part by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. See the Guide
Healthy Start of Oregon Screens More Families in Latest Fiscal Year
Healthy Start is Oregon’s largest child abuse prevention program. In FY 2006-07, despite a 20% cut in general fund allocations during the 2005-07 biennium, Healthy Start screened more families than in any prior year (9,788 families, representing 50% of eligible births). Oregon’s Healthy Start program is unique in the nation, providing universal screening and referral services to first-time parents, and research-based home visiting services to families at higher risk of maltreatment and other negative outcomes. Outcomes for Oregon’s Healthy Start program are consistently positive across a variety of domains known to be important to supporting children’s healthy development and reducing the risk for child maltreatment. See Executive Summary. See full report. See Appendices, including data tables.
Evaluation of Michigan DUI Courts Yields Favorable Findings
This evaluation was designed as a longitudinal study that included tracking and collecting data on DUI court participants for a minimum of one year following either program completion or termination from DUI Court and a comparison group of offenders who were eligible for DUI court in the year prior to DUI court implementation. Data were abstracted from several sources including site visits, the Criminal History Records (CHR) database maintained by the Michigan State Police and the Michigan Judicial Warehouse (JDW). The evaluation results demonstrated that the DUI court is effective in reducing recidivism and reducing drug and alcohol use while using fewer criminal justice system resources to accomplish these goals. See Executive Summary. See full report.
Minnesota Study Examines Chemical Dependency and Mental Health Funding and Service Provision Structures of Adult and D.U.I. Drug Courts
In November 2006, the Minnesota State Court Administrator’s Office (SCAO) contracted with NPC Research for a study of the chemical dependency and mental health funding and service provision structures of Minnesota’s D.W.I. and adult drug courts. The study concluded that Minnesota’s drug court initiative is relatively young in comparison to other states. Despite this fact, the state is making a concerted effort to foster and expand its drug court programs through the establishment of the DCI and the availability of state funds for drug courts, among other things. The state can strengthen its drug courts and move to the forefront of the national drug court movement by building a state-level drug court infrastructure to strengthen existing courts, establish additional courts, and integrate mental health services into the drug court model. See 2-page brief. See full report.
Report Details Successes and Challenges of 10-Year Study of Multnomah County Drug Court, Second Oldest in Nation
NPC Research has released the findings of a study funded by the National Institute of Justice: The Impact of a Mature Drug Court Over 10 Years of Operation: Recidivism and Costs. The study examined the impact of a single drug court on the total population of drug court-eligible offenders over a 10-year period in Portland, Oregon. This drug court, the Multnomah County Drug Court in Portland, Oregon, is the second oldest in the United States. The Program was originally designed to be a pre-plea offer to individuals arrested on drug charges. The program began accepting probationers and parolees (as well as pre-plea clients) in 1995 and became a completely post-plea program in 2000. This study covers the period from program start in 1991 through 2001. See Exectutive Summary. See Final Report.
Evaluation Points to Successes of Oregon's Relief Nursery Program
Relief Nurseries serve families in the Oregon cities of Albany, Bend, Cottage Grove, Eugene, Medford, Portland, Roseburg, and Salem. Relief Nurseries provide core services to high-risk families, and outreach services based on community needs. Core services include therapeutic early childhood services (and related services such as food and transportation), home visits, parent education classes, respite care, and alcohol and drug recovery support. Relief Nurseries demonstrate positive outcomes for families, including improving daily family functioning and the quality of parent-child interactions, and reducing overall risk. NPC recently completed an evaluation of the program. See Exectutive Summary. See Final Report.
NPC Releases Results of 4-Year Family Treatment Drug Court Study
NPC Research has found that Family Treatment Drug Courts are more successful than traditional child welfare case processing in helping substance-abusing parents enter and complete treatment and reunify with their children. In 2002, NPC Research received funding from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) to conduct the first large-scale outcome study of FTDCs, specialized courts designed to work with substance-abusing parents involved with the child welfare system. For more information, see Full Report, Executive Summary, or a two-page Key Outcome Findings.
Oregon Healthy Start Evaluation Reports Released
NPC Research has released its 2005-2006 evaluation report of Oregon’s Healthy Start program, the state’s largest child abuse prevention program, screening over 7,500 families and providing evidence-based home visiting services to over 3,300 children at risk for maltreatment statewide in FY 2005-06. Outcomes for families receiving home visiting are tracked annually through an ongoing evaluation conducted by NPC. Additionally, during FY 2005-06, Oregon’s Healthy Start program continued its efforts to obtain a statewide program credential from Healthy Families America (HFA). This credential involves documenting the use of a comprehensive set of research-based program practices, including evidence-based home visiting procedures, rigorous training and supervision supports, and effective program management and administration processes. Learn more about the Healthy Start evaluation and access the latest reports and fact sheets >>
Article Addresses Relationship of Substance Abuse Treatment to Child Welfare Outcomes
An article published in the April 2007 issue of Children and Youth Services Review is co-authored by NPC researchers Beth L. Green, Ph.D., and Carrie J. Furrer, Ph.D. A third author is Anna Rockhill, M.P.P., of Portland State University. Although substance abuse is one of the primary reasons that parents become involved with the child welfare system, there is surprisingly little empirical research that examines the relationship of substance abuse treatment to child welfare outcomes. In a statewide longitudinal study of 1,911 women who had children placed in substitute care, the authors examined the influence of three key factors in the treatment process on child welfare outcomes. See abstract and opportunity to access article.
Paper Co-Authored by NPC Researcher Examines Mental Health Consultation in Early Childhood Settings
The findings of a study published recently in Topics in Early Childhood Special Education offers recommendations concerning the manner in which early childhood program managers and other professionals make decisions about the most important characteristics and services that mental health consultants should provide. NPC Vice President Beth L. Green, Ph.D., served as the lead author. The paper, a product of a study on Transforming Transitions to Kindgergarten, represents a partnership between NPC Research and the Research & Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health at Portland State University.
In response to (a) an increasing need to support children with emotional and behavioral challenges in childcare settings and (b) the high rates of expulsion among preschool children, mental health consultation in early childhood settings is becoming an increasingly popular intervention strategy. At the same time, there is little agreement or empirical evidence to help early childhood program managers and other professionals make decisions about the most important characteristics and services that mental health consultants should provide. The current study presents findings from a nationally representative survey of 74 Head Start programs and 655 Head Start directors, staff members, and mental health consultants to use in addressing this gap. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM), the authors present results suggesting that the single most important characteristic of mental health consultants is their ability to build positive collaborative relationships with program staff members. The frequency of consultant activities was important, primarily because consultants who provided more frequent services were reported to have more positive relationships with staff members. These results were significant even after controlling for program-level characteristics, such as program size, budget for mental health services, and ratio of consultant hours to number of children.
Learn more about the related project, Transforming Transitions to Kindergarten.
