HFG - Healthy Families Georgia Database and EvaluationPersonnel Description Since February, 2000, the Center for Family Research has been under contract with the Georgia Children’s Trust Fund to evaluate the effectiveness of Healthy Families Georgia. Part of a larger national child abuse prevention program, Healthy Families Georgia (HFG) was established in Georgia in 1992. In twenty communities across the state, HFG screens all first-time mothers in an effort to identify women who are at risk for developing abusive or neglectful relationships with their babies. These mothers receive in-home services aimed at educating them about healthy child development and promoting positive parenting practices. These visitation services are provided to the mother through the first three years of the child’s life. The long-term goal of the program is to prevent or reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. Project Goals The goals of the Center’s ongoing HFG database and evaluation project are to: • Collect and store data on the intervention activities and services provided by the Healthy Families Georgia staff • Document and track changes in the families being served by the program through routine administration and scoring of standardized evaluation measures • Provide the Georgia Children’s Trust Fund with quarterly statewide reports on the effectiveness of the HFG program. Evaluation Questions Evaluation data are analyzed in order to provide answers to the following questions: • Do child-rearing attitudes and behaviors significantly improve during a mother’s involvement in the Healthy Families Georgia program? • Are children who are at risk for developmental delay monitored and referred to an early intervention program (Babies Can’t Wait) for further developmental assessment? • Are there significant improvements in a child’s home environment between 6 months and 12 months of age as a result of the Healthy Families Georgia services the family has received? Assessment Measures Sample Results • Between July, 2000, and September, 2003, 1632 families were represented in the Healthy Families Georgia database. The average age of mothers participating in HFG was 19 years old. Over half of the participants were Black, 27% were White and 21% were Hispanic. • As measured by the AAPI-2, at least 34% of the participants were at high risk for abusive and/or neglectful parenting behaviors and were in need of intervention addressing those areas. This percentage dropped to 30% at a 12-month follow-up. • The mean developmental scores on the ASQ were well above the established cutoff score, indicating that in general the children participating in HFG are following typical developmental trajectories at 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 months. • Analysis of ratings on the HOME/SHIF showed significant
positive changes in mean total scores between the 6- and 12-month
evaluations, thus indicating overall positive changes in the home
environments of families participating in HFG. The Healthy Families Georgia Information System (HFGIS), a web-based database application, was designed specifically for Healthy Families program sites across the state of Georgia by staff at the Center for Family Research. Its purpose is to allow information about HFG families and the services provided to them to be easily collected, safely stored and accurately summarized. Information about the program sites, the staff, the participating families and the services they receive is entered into the database by HFG staff. Reports reflecting summarized information from the database can be generated in several categories, including participant file reports, program manager reports, and administrative/credentialing reports. This web-based application was launched in August, 2003. Links |
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