{"id":3053,"date":"2021-11-02T14:09:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T14:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/?p=3053"},"modified":"2022-05-26T12:57:45","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T18:57:45","slug":"abc-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/abc-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Statewide ABC Project Shows Promise Across Kansas and Cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>The 10-week early childhood home visiting program results are promising in Kansas: healthier children, more confident caregivers, and stronger families<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can a 10-week home visiting program for caregivers of infants and toddlers result in healthier Kansas children? The results from a three-year-long initiative say yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From May 2017 through April 2020, the Kansas ABC Early Childhood Initiative brought the evidence-based <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abcintervention.org\/\">Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention<\/a> to five sites in Kansas to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating the program into the existing array of early childhood programs across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Evaluating ABC&#039;s Impact in Kansas: November 2021 Webinar\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B1hgzvBx-SM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Kansas Overall Evaluation Findings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-ABC-Social-Media-findings-header-1024x215.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3154\" width=\"768\" height=\"161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-ABC-Social-Media-findings-header-1024x215.png 1024w, https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-ABC-Social-Media-findings-header-300x63.png 300w, https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-ABC-Social-Media-findings-header-768x162.png 768w, https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-ABC-Social-Media-findings-header.png 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur evaluation team was excited to find that the Kansas ABC Early Childhood Initiative had positive outcomes in Kansas including healthier children, more confident parents and caregivers, stronger families, and more comprehensive services and systems,\u201d said Amy Mendenhall, director of the Center for Community Engagement &amp; Collaboration at the University of Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the course of three years, 536 families were screened for toxic stress across 36 counties. In that time, 402 families were enrolled in the ABC intervention, and 682 caregivers and 907 children were impacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After completing ABC:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Caregiver concerns regarding child social-emotional functioning decreased.<\/li><li>Children\u2019s cortisol levels, an indicator of stress, became more normalized. However, the change was not statistically significant for the entire sample.<\/li><li>Parent coaches rated children\u2019s overall wellbeing as more positive.<\/li><li>Caregivers\u2019 knowledge, and beliefs in their caregiving abilities, increased.<\/li><li>In interactions with their children, caregiver intrusiveness went down, while sensitivity and delight went up.<\/li><li>Caregiver capabilities significantly improved.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Evaluation Findings for ABC Delivery in Spanish<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The initiative included four parent coaches who delivered the program in Spanish. Approximately 41% of families served were Hispanic or Latinx, and 22% primarily spoke Spanish in the home. Overall, the findings were similar for families who received ABC in Spanish as those who received it in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coaches experienced some challenges in translating the program and its core concepts. Overall, they shared positive experiences regarding the cultural relevance of the program and having a coach who spoke Spanish and was Latinx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was important to have the initiative reflect the changing demographics in our state,\u201d said David Jordan, United Methodist Health Ministry Fund president and CEO. \u201cWe were excited to see positive results for our Spanish-speaking families. We shared those findings\u2014and the challenges in translating materials and some concepts\u2014with the program developers at the University of Delaware.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lessons Learned for Policymakers and Funders<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As policymakers explore evidence-based strategies to<br>&#8211; prevent utilization of the child welfare system,<br>&#8211; keep children with their parents in their homes,<br>&#8211; improve health,<br>&#8211; build parenting skills, and<br>&#8211; address equitable attainment of education,<br>the report detailing the Kansas experience with ABC highlights its potential as a worthy, evidence-based investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kansas has already moved in this direction by providing Family First dollars to support ABC projects as part of child welfare prevention strategies deployed under Family First. Likewise, the Kansas Department of Education has recognized ABC as an approved program for equity funds at the state level, and Medicaid is reimbursing mental health providers using ABC for eligible children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the success of ABC in normalizing cortisol levels and lessons learned from other states \u2013 like New York, which utilized ABC to sustainably reduce child welfare caseloads and aid reunification efforts \u2013 there is great potential for policymakers to further support evidence-based programs like ABC to advance child health and child welfare goals as well as improve educational attainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue investment from foundations and early childhood stakeholders in ABC and other evidence-based programs will offer important opportunities to test, pilot, and evaluate programs to inform and maximize the return on future investments affecting generations to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Kansas ABC Findings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/ABC_Full.pdf\">Full report from KU<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/ABC_Summary.pdf\">Executive summary<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/ABC-Policy-Brief-Final.pdf\">Research brief<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-ABC-Spanish-Brief-Final.pdf\">Spanish delivery brief<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/ABC-Evaluation-Phase-1-Final-Report-presentation-webinar-11.02.21.pdf\">Webinar slides<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-ABC-Ph1-Press-Release.pdf\">Press release<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Five philanthropic organizations brought the ABC program to Kansas: United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Hutchinson Community Foundation, Kansas Health Foundation, REACH Healthcare Foundation and Wyandotte Health Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 10-week early childhood home visiting program results are promising in Kansas: healthier children, more confident caregivers, and stronger families Can a 10-week home visiting program for caregivers of infants and toddlers result in healthier Kansas children? The results from a three-year-long initiative say yes. From May 2017 through April 2020, the Kansas ABC Early &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-early-childhood-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4185,"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions\/4185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthfund.org\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}