Wraparound Blog
Join Our Team! An Opportunity for Researchers, Graduate Students, and Trainees to Help Grow the Research Base on Wraparound and Systems of Care
September 23, 2022 | NWI
If you follow news and updates from the National Wraparound Initiative, you know that the NWI’s driving purpose is to conduct research on “what works” for youth with complex needs and their families and then translate that knowledge into action in the real world for real youth and families.
Working with the National Wraparound Implementation Center (NWIC) and hundreds of partners across the country, our team at the University of Washington, Portland State University, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, has conducted rigorous research, gotten federal research grants, developed evaluation and quality assurance measures, and synthesized research on the impact of Wraparound.
As a result, Wraparound is now widely understood to be a research-based practice. Moreover, states and organizations that implement Wraparound have access to a wealth of resources to help their efforts. These include implementation standards, training curricula, coaching tools, and measures of practice fidelity as well as organizational and state supports, just to name a few.
The volume of data being generated from all these measures and tools is immense. That is why we are issuing this call to researchers, students, and trainees to join us in our work.
If you are a graduate student seeking a thesis or dissertation topic, or are a researcher with expertise in child and family service delivery, and wish to take advantage of NWI and NWIC’s wealth of data and partnerships, we want to hear from you! Researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students who are interested in accessing, analyzing, and writing up or presenting results can reach out by emailing us at wrapeval@uw.edu.
In your email, tell us a little bit about yourself, your skills, and your research interests. Once we hear from you, we will provide you with a survey that will help us better understand whether and how we might provide you with access to relevant datasets, and how we might work together. To help you get started, see the table below to see examples of relevant research questions and datasets that qualified research partners might be able to use.
We hope to hear from you, so we can make the most of the incredible, data-informed movement that is Wraparound systems of care.
Eric Bruns,
Professor and Co-Director, NWI
Janet Walker,
Professor and Co-Director, NWI
Jonathan Olson,
Research Scientist, UW WERT
Kim Estep,
Director of Training, NWIC
Table 1. Wraparound Data Sources, Constructs, and Sample Projects
| Data Sources | Constructs Measured | Sample Projects |
|---|---|---|
| Wraparound Fidelity Index – Short Form (WFI-EZ) | Wraparound fidelity (based on caregiver, care coordinator, youth, and team member surveys), youth and family satisfaction, youth outcomes, demographics | Relations among youth and family characteristics, Wraparound implementation quality, and youth outcomes |
| Document Assessment and Review Tool (DART) | Wraparound fidelity (based on document review), Wraparound processes, clinical and functional outcomes | Validation study of the DART; Study of relations among fidelity indicators, Wraparound processes, and clinical and functional outcomes |
| Team Observation Measure (TOM 2.0) | Wraparound fidelity (based on observations) | Multi-method study of Wraparound fidelity (comparisons across fidelity measures) |
| Impact of Training and Technical Assistance (IOTTA) Measure | Perceptions of training and TA, predictors of practice change, barriers to change, intended and follow-up impact of training/TA | Validation study of the IOTTA; study to examine characteristics of training and TA that predict practice changes |
| Intervention Usability Scale (IUS) | Perceived utility of specific interventions | Validation study of the IUS |
| Wraparound Implementation Standards – System and Program (WISS and WISP) | Progress on getting system- and program-level practices in place to support Wraparound implementation | Impact of inner and outer setting factors on Wraparound implementation quality |
| Stages of Implementation Completion (SIC) | Implementation processes tracked over time | Examination of factors that influence time to Wraparound implementation completion |