Case Management Center – Institute for Home Visiting Workforce Development

The Jackie Walorski Center for Evidence-Based Case Management (Case Management Center) is committed to understanding and enhancing the role of home visiting in addressing health and wellness through case management activities. Its purpose is to identify, evaluate, and disseminate evidence-informed case management strategies relevant to the home visiting context. The term case management broadly refers to the provision of a range of client-centered activities that connect families with and support their continued use of necessary community resources and services that align with their needs and preferences. Many terms are used to describe case management and similar processes, such as care coordination and service coordination.

Purpose

The Case Management Center will identify and share effective case management strategies used in home visiting and closely adjacent fields that work with expectant families and families with young children. We develop new knowledge and provide evidence-informed professional development and technical assistance opportunities to advance home visiting and improve outcomes for families.

Tasks

Establish and engage a Community Expert Group to provide ongoing input and guide the work.
Conduct a narrative review of definitions and conceptualizations of case management and related terms.
Conduct a scoping review of original research in home visiting and adjacent services.
Conduct an environmental scan of practices and materials used in home visiting.
Summarize and disseminate knowledge development findings.
Develop and implement study design(s) to strengthen evidence for case management in home visiting.
Use knowledge development findings to inform technical assistance and professional development.

Spotlight

Resource

Planning Tool

Development of an Online Training to Engage Home Visitors as Research Stakeholders

Home visiting (HV) has demonstrated positive impacts across family well-being domains. Home visitors receive training in HV model requirements as well as to develop knowledge and various skills. Despite growth in HV research, we are not aware of existing training or required competencies in research design, research methods, or dissemination of research findings for home visitors.

Objectives: Via ongoing collaboration with an Advisory Board of key HV stakeholders, we developed a three module online training that incorporated examples from HV research and practice to address the gap in research training for home visitors and to promote home visitors’ engagement as research stakeholders.

Methods: A convenience sample of home visitors (n=176) was surveyed on research knowledge, research self efficacy, and priority training topics, with results used to create a beta version of the training completed by six home visitors. Home visitor feedback on the beta version, coupled with Advisory Board recommendations, led to creation of the final online training. Forty home visitors viewed the final training and completed pre- and post-training surveys to assess changes in research knowledge and self-efficacy. Twelve home visitors also completed a semi-structured qualitative interview. Home visitors demonstrated improvements in research
knowledge and self-efficacy and found the training easy to understand and useful.

Conclusion: Guidance from stakeholders led to development of an online training that was effective in improving home visitors’ research knowledge and self-efficacy. This training can be used by HV researchers and practitioners as a tool to promote home visitors’ active engagement as stakeholders in research. (author abstract)