The goal of this community-engaged research is two-fold. The first goal is to gather stakeholder feedback to inform a school-based community health worker intervention with youth with poor school attendance and an enhanced usual care condition. The second goal is to evaluate the feasibility of implementing the school-based community health worker intervention and enhanced usual care approach within rural schools. The main question it aims to answer is whether it is feasibile to recruit children with poor school attendance and their families to the intervention, to complete the trauma-informed intervention, and to complete the associated study measures of meeting social determinants of health/mental health needs, school-based health center utilization, and behavioral helath symptoms. At least 38 rural students in grades 6-12 with poor school attendance and their parents/guardians will meet with the school-based community health worker for support around social determinants of health needs that may be barriers to attendance. Researchers will also assess the feasibility of recruiting at least 10 rural students and their parents/guardians to complete the study measures in an enhanced usual care condition in which the school-based health center without a school-based community health worker is reminded of the availability of an online social services directory.
The HERE pilot study will consist of two phases to strengthen and finalize the HERE school-based community health worker (SB-CHW) intervention. The 6-month Phase I will provide broad stakeholder feedback on the proposed model and rationale, the SB-CHW intervention, the associated domains and measures, and the evaluation. The following 18-month Phase II will align with the school year and provide a feasibility test of the training, intervention, data collection, and analyses.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
126
The school-based community health worker will support students with chronic poor attendance and their parent/guardian for a minimum of two 30-minute encounters focused on addressing social determinants needs, understanding the range/student encounter varies greatly due to the intensity of the social need(s) (e.g., crisis/noncrisis) and the number of needs being jointly addressed. The SB-CHW will build relationships across encounters and apply trauma-informed best practices.
The network of school-based health centers without school-based community health workers will receive reminders of the the existing online social services directory.
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City, Kansas, United States
RECRUITINGSchool Based Health Services Utilization
The number of visits to School Based Health Centers (SBHC)
Time frame: At study completion (an average of 10 months/1 school year)
School Attendance
The number of school days in attendance, collected by ½ day increments 1(b) determination whether the student continues to meet the definition of chronic poor attendance (Yes/No)
Time frame: At study completion (an average of 10 months/1 school year)
Parent & Child Self-Sufficiency and Needs
Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix. An 18-item self-report measure assessing needs on a 5-point Likert scale, including Housing, Employment, Income, Food, Childcare, Children's Education, Adult Education, Health Care Coverage, Life Skills, Family/Social Relations, Mobility, Community Involvement, Parenting Skills, Legal, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Safety, and Disabilities.
Time frame: At enrollment, at study completion (an average of 10 months/1 school year)
Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths
Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) is a validated semi-structured interview that assesses children's exposure to potentially traumatic experiences \& level of traumatic stress symptoms, as well as considering strengths (Kisiel \& Fehrenbach, 2015).
Time frame: At enrollment, at study completion (an average of 10 months/1 school year)
Family Engagement
The Family Engagement Survey -- Version 2 (FES), a validated measure of family and school engagement consisting of 20 items rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).
Time frame: At enrollment, at study completion (an average of 10 months/1 school year)
School-Based Community Health Worker Interactions
Number of CHW interactions with the student, parent/guardian, and/or both
Time frame: At study completion (an average of 10 months/1 school year)
Process for Enhanced Usual Care
Use of resources from the online social services directory (yes/no)
Time frame: At enrollment, at study completion (an average of 10 months/1 school year)
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