Evaluation of the Healthy Families Alaska Program, Final Report

• NCJ Number: 240108
• Author(s): Anne Duggan, Sc.D.; Kira Rodriguez, M.H.S.; Lori Burrell, M.A.; Charles Rohde, Ph.D.; Debra Caldera; Sara Shea
• Date Published: January 2005
• Length: 54 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Alaska Dept of Health & Social Services; Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority
• Corporate Author: Johns Hopkins University
• Sale Source: Alaska Dept of Health & Social Services
• Publication Format: Document; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report presents the methodology and findings of an evaluation of the Healthy Families Alaska (HFAK) program, a well-established child abuse prevention program that targets at-risk families.

Abstract

The evaluation found evidence that HFAK has made a substantial effort to promote healthy and safe child development through parent education on child development and through education and role modeling regarding parent-child interaction. Actual program services, however, have deviated from HFAK standards in many areas. HFAK sites varied substantially in their adherence to process standards. Even at sites with the best process measures, service delivery departed from HFAK standards. Although HFAK services are expected to extend for 3 to 5 years, the highest site-specific retention rate was 46 percent at 2 years. Although the model calls for weekly home visits, the highest site-specific rate was approximately once every 2 weeks for active families. Although HFAK standards call for an individualized family support plan to guide services, nearly half of the families did not have a plan. Developmental screens were conducted about half as often as required in the model. Family support workers usually did not address the malleable risk for which families were targeted for service, i.e., poor mental health, partner violence, and substance use. Regarding positive results from the program, HFAK families were significantly less likely than control families to have extremely adverse home environments for child learning. HFAK mothers had lower levels of parenting stress, greater knowledge of child development, and greater empathy toward their children. In addition, HFAK children had more favorable scores for cognitive development and behavior. On the other hand, HFAK did not prevent child maltreatment, reduce malleable parent risks for maltreatment, or improve child health, maternal life course, and household functioning indicators. 37 tables, 4 figures, and 68 references