Evaluating the Effectiveness of Infant Mental Health Enhanced Case Management for Dependency Populations Journal Article Critique Christian Pitts Jackson State University Problem Importance The purpose of this study was to determine that children under the child welfare system who experience abuse or neglect are at risk of suffering developmental delays. Evaluation Question Research Question- Does receiving social service efforts such as enhanced case management identify and address developmental needs in children to help them reach age appropriate developmental levels to do well? This project was to test the following 14 hypotheses. 1. Children who receive enhanced case management will go into permanent placement sooner …show more content…
Children who received enhanced case management will receive more services based on the assessments they received than those who do not. 8. Parents who receive enhanced case management will receive more referrals for services they received than those who do not. 9. Parents who receive enhanced case management will have more contact with referral resources, when referrals made than those who do not. 10. Parents who receive enhanced case management will receive more completed assessments with referral resources, when referrals made and contact made than those who do not. 11. Parents who received enhanced case management will receive more services based on the assessments they received than those who do not. 12. Children who receive enhanced case management will have more results of successfully completing treatment than those who do not. 13. Parents who receive enhanced case management will have more results of successfully completing treatment than those who do not. 14. Children who receive enhanced case management will show progress on Ages & Stages and Ages & Stages Social Emotional developmental scores for their age from the beginning to the end of the project. Research …show more content…
The study explicitly answers the research question. The need review briefly summarizes the reasoning for the study. I was very informed by going back to the references to understand the study’s purpose. The hypotheses were clearly testable. The researchers did a good job at explaining the project design. They also did a great job at describing how they collected their data. Implications The enhanced case management benefited both the children and parents in this study. The project did not have sufficient resources to do pre- and post-test Ages & Stages screenings on control and experimental group of children as it progressed. This would have enhanced the data significantly. The study does not answer the question of does enhanced case management work to stabilize developmental skills for the experimental group where it may have usually gone down, as a natural effect of the risk experienced by the children in this study. References Congdon, D. (2010). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Infant Mental Health Enhanced Case Management for Dependency Populations. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work,