Understanding Accessibility, Quality, and Impact of Parenting Programs with CMHA BC
The Canadian Mental Health Association of BC (CMHA-BC) provides a family-focused coaching service for parents of children with mild to moderate anxiety called Confident Parents – Thriving Kids – Anxiety (CPTK-A). This program provides one-on-one support to parents over the phone over a series of weeks to teach parents strategies to support their children when experiencing anxiety.
CMHA-BC waned to better understand the perceptions and realities of the accessibility of their program, the perceived quality of the program and the measured impact of the program.
Understand
In our kick-off meeting we asked the team to brainstorm all the questions they had about their program. It became clear that there were three priority areas that CMHA-BC staff wanted to learn more about: access, quality and impact. We built an evaluation plan centred and equally weighted on these three areas. Using the RE-AIM framework, we ensured that we were capturing multiple dimensions of access, including Reach and Adoption, as well as multiple dimensions of program quality, including implementation efficiency and program effectiveness.
Uncover
We identified existing data sources, including an extensive administrative database that included pre- and post-assessments, and we created surveys and interview guides to understand the experiences and perceptions of CMHA staff and past participants. There was so much interest in participating in the interviews that we recruited our desired sample size within a couple of days.
Utilize
We used our findings to create a Journey Map for CPTK-A that highlighted access points to the program, and opportunities to improve access. We identified several limitations in the data collected by the program and made recommendations about how to improve data collection and quality to improve the program’s ability to make evidence-informed decisions. Finally, we summarized all the findings in a comprehensive report and a brief summary report for sharing with key partners.