<p>Roughly 10% of children globally are estimated to be living in kinship care arrangements. Kinship caregivers often report needing assistance accessing benefits and services to help in their caregiving role. Kinship navigation programs are one way that governments help kinship caregivers meet the needs associated with caregiving. This quasi-experimental study assessed the effectiveness of the U.S. state of Washington’s case management kinship navigator program on child wellbeing as compared with receiving services-as-usual (referral and information only). Logistic regressions were run on a propensity score matched sample of children (<i>N</i> = 434) in both formal (arranged by the child welfare authority) and informal (self-arranged) kinship care arrangements. The results indicated that the case management kinship navigator model can help reduce placement instability, improve the physical health of children by increasing preventative care visits and reducing the number of emergency room visits, and reduce children’s absences from school and early childhood programs. These results indicate that the case management kinship navigator program can be a protective factor for child wellbeing for children in both formal and informal kinship arrangements. Future studies should examine the generalizability of these results to populations beyond the U.S. state of Washington.</p>

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Washington State Case Management Kinship Navigator Program: an Evaluation of Child Wellbeing Outcomes

  • John Fowler,
  • Tamarie Willis,
  • Lexi West,
  • Sierra Wollenhall,
  • Rosalyn Alber,
  • Amanda Krotke-Crandall,
  • Geene Delaplane,
  • Angelique Day

摘要

Roughly 10% of children globally are estimated to be living in kinship care arrangements. Kinship caregivers often report needing assistance accessing benefits and services to help in their caregiving role. Kinship navigation programs are one way that governments help kinship caregivers meet the needs associated with caregiving. This quasi-experimental study assessed the effectiveness of the U.S. state of Washington’s case management kinship navigator program on child wellbeing as compared with receiving services-as-usual (referral and information only). Logistic regressions were run on a propensity score matched sample of children (N = 434) in both formal (arranged by the child welfare authority) and informal (self-arranged) kinship care arrangements. The results indicated that the case management kinship navigator model can help reduce placement instability, improve the physical health of children by increasing preventative care visits and reducing the number of emergency room visits, and reduce children’s absences from school and early childhood programs. These results indicate that the case management kinship navigator program can be a protective factor for child wellbeing for children in both formal and informal kinship arrangements. Future studies should examine the generalizability of these results to populations beyond the U.S. state of Washington.