Reyes Lucia Miranda, Kaye Sarah
Kaye Implementation & Evaluation LLC, Tacoma, WA, USA.
Child Maltreat. 2024 Feb;29(1):202-213. doi: 10.1177/10775595221132220. Epub 2022 Oct 7.
This study assessed the effectiveness of Safe@Home, an in-home intervention to (1) prevent out-of-home placement for children at imminent risk of placement, and (2) minimize time in out-of-home care for children already in foster care. Using Coarsened Exact Matching, children who received Safe@Home were matched to a comparison group of children served before Safe@Home was available in their community. All children were determined by the child welfare agency to be unsafe and in need of immediate intervention. The matched samples (Safe@Home = 510, Comparison = 851) showed strong baseline equivalence on child age, race/ethnicity, previous history of child welfare involvement, and safety threats. Children who received Safe@Home experienced lower rate of out-of-home placements, higher rate of permanency with a parent (sustained for 12 months after the end of Safe@Home), fewer days in out-of-home care, and shorter time to case closure relative to children who received treatment as usual. There was no effect of Safe@Home on post-permanency outcomes of maltreatment and entry or re-entry after case closure.
本研究评估了“居家安全”项目的有效性，这是一项居家干预措施，旨在：（1）防止即将被安置的儿童被安置到家庭以外的地方；（2）尽量减少已进入寄养照料的儿童在家庭以外照料机构的时间。利用精确匹配法，将接受“居家安全”项目的儿童与在其社区尚未实施该项目之前接受服务的儿童组成的对照组进行匹配。所有儿童均由儿童福利机构判定为处于不安全状态且需要立即进行干预。匹配样本（“居家安全”项目组 = 510名，对照组 = 851名）在儿童年龄、种族/族裔、之前参与儿童福利事务的历史以及安全威胁方面显示出很强的基线等效性。与接受常规治疗的儿童相比，接受“居家安全”项目的儿童被安置到家庭以外的比例更低，与父母团聚的比例更高（在“居家安全”项目结束后持续12个月），在家庭以外照料机构的天数更少，结案时间更短。“居家安全”项目对虐待行为的永久性后果以及结案后再次进入或重新进入照料机构没有影响。
