An Evaluation of the Perceptions of Community Health Workers about the Effectiveness of Interprofessional Family Reviews

This capstone evaluates the perceptions of community health workers about the effectiveness of interprofessional family reviews in providing support for vulnerable families served by three Healthy Families programs. Community health workers (CHWs) provide education, resources and support for vulnerable families to mitigate risk factors associated with poor parenting outcomes including maternal depression. CHWs participate in interprofessional family reviews (IPFR) of their cases in order to receive support, consultation, training, and guidance for their work. Faculty members and their students in clinical psychology and nursing also participate, increasing the relevance of their teaching and learning. Effective collaboration is essential for the IPFR model to be useful. The Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory (Mattessich, Murray-Close, & Monsey, 2001), which includes 20 factors associated with successful collaboration, and two qualitative questions evaluated the perceptions of community health workers about the effectiveness of the IPFRs to support vulnerable mothers at risk for poor parenting outcomes due to health and mental health challenges. A cross sectional descriptive research design was used for the evaluation of CHW perceptions of IPFR effectiveness and used both quantitative and qualitative descriptive methods.
Nine CHWs completed the survey during spring 2014. Of 20 collaboration factors evaluated, the standardized means of 5 were above 4.00 (no follow up needed) and 15 were between 3.00 – 3.99 (steps may be needed to improve the quality of the interaction). Qualitative themes confirmed that CHWs value the consultation, training, and support they receive in the IPFRs, but that they recommend involving additional interprofessional team members and that the IPFRs focus on practical advice, resources and guidelines. Healthy Families program community health workers perceive the interprofessional family reviews as effective in providing support, consultation, and training for serving vulnerable families. However, it will be important to follow up on the survey findings for the IPFRs to continue to be perceived as useful. Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice can inform the process (IPEC, 2011).