Evaluation Project
Julia Newbery has undertaken the evaluation of various projects being run by the Anna Freud Centre.
Evaluating the projects gives the Centre a greater measure of their success - which in turn allows the AFC to improve the services that it offers.
Projects being evaluated include:
Click here for more on the SMART project.
This evaluation explores how the family experiences its time in SMART. That is, it examines whether parents perceive changes in their child, and whether the child perceives changes in his or her self.
In addition, the evaluation monitors therapist perceptions of change in the child and in the family as a whole.
Parental input in the evaluation involves the completion of a selection of standardised questionnaires across their time in treatment.
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires are completed before the first session, after the final session, and again six months later. These are designed to explore the parents' perceptions of their child's attributes and behaviour.
The Systematic Inventory of Change questionnaire is completed before their first session and after every subsequent session in order to monitor if and when changes in their perceptions of the family, their child and their experiences of therapy take place.
Children over the age of 11 are asked to complete a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for themselves before and after their treatment, and both they and their parents each complete a Commission for Health Improvement Experience of Service Questionnaire after their time with SMART is complete.
This gives valuable feedback of their experiences of therapy as a whole.
The therapist input comes from scores attributed to the child after their first session and then again after their last, to explore what has changed as a result of their treatment.
These scores are composed from Health of the Nation Outcome Scales and the Children's Global Assessment Scale.
Preliminary analysis has indicated the effectiveness of SMART and parents' satisfaction with the therapy.
Click here for more on the England's Lane part of the Parent-Infant Project.
This evaluation explores how families living in the England's Lane Hostel experience the group sessions run by an AFC child psychotherapist. These group sessions are organised as an outreach part of the Parent-Infant Project.
The evaluation also assesses whether the service contributes to child development and the parent-infant interaction.
Assessment of child development involves the implementation of the Bayley Scale of Infant Development by an independent research psychologist at two points in time, three months apart.
Video interactions of parent and infant in free-play are taken at the same time points and coded on the CARE Index to measure the quality of the interaction.
The same procedures are being conducted in other homeless hostels that do not run a similar drop-in group session.
It is expected that the child's development will be enhanced at England's Lane compared to those at other hostels due to the encouragement of play with their infants and others in the group.
Additionally, it is hoped that the time spent with a psychotherapist, and the discussions between the psychotherapist and the health visitor will have a positive impact on the parent's ability to interact with their baby and to reflect upon their child's individuality.
New Beginnings course for mothers and babies in prison
Click here for more on the New Beginnings part of the Parent-Infant Project.
The evaluation of New Beginnings, which aims to help mothers and babies in prison, involves using pre- and post-course interview protocols exploring the mother's experiences of parenting and her reflections on her relationship with her baby.
The preliminary effectiveness of the programme has been demonstrated in the pilot stage, with results showing a significant increase in the mother's capacity to reflect upon her relationship with her child and accurately to attribute thoughts and emotions to him/her after the course.
Video interactions of mother and infant were also collected as part of the evaluation, which were later coded for dynamics of their interaction.
More positive exchanges between mother and baby were found after the course compared to before the course.
The main trial is currently under way, where the course is running in three mother-baby units in the UK.
The same research procedures are being conducted at these three mother-baby units as take place at other mother-baby units where the course is not being run.
This will enable us to determine to what extent the differences before and after the course are the result of the course itself, or due simply to natural development.
The main project is expected to be complete by the end of 2009.
New Beginnings is organised as an outreach part of the Parent-Infant Project.