Measuring collaboration across children’s behavioral health and child welfare systems.

Abstract

A commonly emphasized component of trauma-informed care is the practice of building cross-system collaboration (CSC). While existing research on CSC states numerous benefits and barriers associated with increasing collaboration between systems, there is limited empirical understanding on how to define and measure collaboration between county systems of care. The current study presents the psychometric evaluation of scores from the Perceptions of Overarching Cross-System Collaboration–Child Welfare and Behavioral Health Systems (POCSC-CW/BH), a 6-item self-report instrument completed by system administrative leadership and direct service providers, administered within child welfare and children’s behavioral health systems in 6 California counties. Psychometric analysis demonstrated good support of internal consistency, as well as the factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity of scores produced by the tool. There was also evidence for content validity. System-level analyses showed within-county child welfare, and children’s behavioral health system staff reported similar perceptions of CSC in 5 of 6 counties, whereas POCSC-CW/BH scores across counties showed variability. Exploratory results revealed CSC scores varied by staff role in each system. In general, the POCSC-CW/BH is a promising instrument that adds to a limited array of practical empirically supported measurement tools for measuring CSC between child welfare and children’s behavior health systems. The study limitations and implications for CSC measurement and trauma-informed practice are discussed.

Psychometric Evaluation of the TIC Grade, a Self-Report Measure to Assess Youth Perceptions of the Quality of Trauma-Informed Care They Received

“…This instrument also responds to a need for an intervention research measure of the extent to which clients perceive (and thus receive) TIC (Bellg et al, 2004). A review of available measures examining TIC service delivery is presented in a companion paper describing the development of the TIC Grade (Sinko et al, 2020) and are cited here (Baker et al, 2015; Bassuk et al, 2017; Crandal et al, 2019; Goodman et al, 2016; Richardson et al, 2012). Of these, only the TIP scales, a measure created specifically to assess TIC in domestic violence shelters, assess TIC from the client perspective (Goodman et al, 2016).…”

Trauma-Informed Organizational Dynamics and Client Outcomes in Concurrent Disorder Treatment

“…Moreover, collaboration is often understood at the programmatic level to include the integration of a broad set of services such as medical support, group therapy, childcare, and different types of personal counseling (Drabble et al, 2013; Kirst et al, 2017). Within these programs, collaborative efforts between service users and staff are often described as following a shared decision-making model (Crandal et al, 2019) where both sides join to mutually develop a program plan (Keesler, 2016).…”

Introduction to the special issue: Trauma-informed care for children and families.

“…Articles in this section set out to develop or show the utility of measures reflecting principles of trauma-informed care, such as measures of cross-system collaboration (Crandal, Martin, Hazen, & Rolls Reutz, 2019), assessment batteries that ensure robust assessment of trauma-related mental health diagnoses for child welfareϪinvolved children (John et al, 2019), and using an assessment of organizational trauma-informed care to discern factors that aid or detract from the adoption and maintenance of such care (Unick, Bassuk, Richard, & Paquette, 2019). Crandal et al (2019) describe the psychometric characteristics of the Perceptions of Overarching Cross-System Collaboration-Child Welfare and Behavioral Health Systems (POCSC-CW/BH) instrument. Premised on the importance of collaboration across behavioral health and human service agencies in addressing trauma and other challenges for children involved with child welfare services, this article reports findings across six California counties.…”

“…Trauma-informed care encourages recognition of the impact of trauma on every aspect of practice. Articles in this section set out to develop or show the utility of measures reflecting principles of trauma-informed care, such as measures of cross-system collaboration (Crandal, Martin, Hazen, & Rolls Reutz, 2019), assessment batteries that ensure robust assessment of trauma-related mental health diagnoses for child welfare−involved children (John et al, 2019), and using an assessment of organizational trauma-informed care to discern factors that aid or detract from the adoption and maintenance of such care (Unick, Bassuk, Richard, & Paquette, 2019).…”

“…Crandal et al (2019) describe the psychometric characteristics of the Perceptions of Overarching Cross-System Collaboration—Child Welfare and Behavioral Health Systems (POCSC-CW/BH) instrument. Premised on the importance of collaboration across behavioral health and human service agencies in addressing trauma and other challenges for children involved with child welfare services, this article reports findings across six California counties.…”