The goal of this community-engaged research is two-fold. The first goal is to gather stakeholder feedback to inform a school-based community health worker intervention with youth with poor school attendance and an enhanced usual care condition. The second goal is to evaluate the feasibility of implementing the school-based community health worker intervention and enhanced usual care approach within rural schools.
The main question it aims to answer is whether it is feasibile to recruit children with poor school attendance and their families to the intervention, to complete the trauma-informed intervention, and to complete the associated study measures of meeting social determinants of health/mental health needs, school-based health center utilization, and behavioral helath symptoms. At least 38 rural students in grades 6-12 with poor school attendance and their parents/guardians will meet with the school-based community health worker for support around social determinants of health needs that may be barriers to attendance. Researchers will also assess the feasibility of recruiting at least 10 rural students and their parents/guardians to complete the study measures in an enhanced usual care condition in which the school-based health center without a school-based community health worker is reminded of the availability of an online social services directory.
A member of the program's Community Advisory Board, including community health workers;
Caregiver of a child ages 12-18 from the Southeast Kansas region; or
Student at least 12 years in age.
Children ages 12-18 and their parents/guardians from the Southeast Kansas region
Parents/guardians or youth with profound intellectual/cognitive disability will be excluded.
Parallel
School-Based Community Health Worker (SB-CHW) intervention
BehavioralThe school-based community health worker will support students with chronic poor attendance and their parent/guardian for a minimum of two 30-minute encounters focused on addressing social determinants needs, understanding the range/student encounter varies greatly due to the intensity of the social need(s) (e.g., crisis/noncrisis) and the number of needs being jointly addressed. The SB-CHW will build relationships across encounters and apply trauma-informed best practices.
Enhanced Usual Care (EUC) Methods
BehavioralThe network of school-based health centers without school-based community health workers will receive reminders of the the existing online social services directory.
School Based Health Services Utilization
The number of visits to School Based Health Centers (SBHC)
School Attendance
The number of school days in attendance, collected by ½ day increments 1(b) determination whether the student continues to meet the definition of chronic poor attendance (Yes/No)
Parent & Child Self-Sufficiency and Needs
Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix. An 18-item self-report measure assessing needs on a 5-point Likert scale, including Housing, Employment, Income, Food, Childcare, Children's Education, Adult Education, Health Care Coverage, Life Skills, Family/Social Relations, Mobility, Community Involvement, Parenting Skills, Legal, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Safety, and Disabilities.
Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths
Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) is a validated semi-structured interview that assesses children's exposure to potentially traumatic experiences \& level of traumatic stress symptoms, as well as considering strengths (Kisiel \& Fehrenbach, 2015).
Family Engagement
The Family Engagement Survey -- Version 2 (FES), a validated measure of family and school engagement consisting of 20 items rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).
School-Based Community Health Worker Interactions
Number of CHW interactions with the student, parent/guardian, and/or both
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University of Kansas Medical Center
Lead sponsor
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
Collaborator
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Collaborator
