Bunger, A. C., Chuang, E., Girth, A. M., Lancaster, K. E., Smith, R., Phillips, R. J., Martin, J., Gadel, F., Willauer, T., Himmeger, M. J., Millisor, J., McClellan, J., Powell, B. J., Saldana, L., & Aarons, G. A. (2024).
Implementing the Ohio START model depends on collaboration across child welfare and substance use disorder treatment systems. There are many ways to collaborate across systems and each type of partnership can serve a different goal. This study identified collaboration strategies using a two-phased approach.
First, small group interviews were conducted with child welfare and substance use disorder treatment agency staff to identify cross-system collaboration strategies used to implement Ohio START. Phase 2 included an expert panel of community partners and scholars who operationally defined the cross-system collaboration strategies.
There were seven strategies used to collaborate for Ohio START implementation. These strategies were used to accomplish three goals: program staffing, enhancing service access, and coordinating case plans. To staff the program, agencies contracted out for expertise (specifically, the family peer mentor position), co-located staff, and provided joint-supervision. To enhance service access, agencies developed referral protocols and expedited access agreements. To align case plans, agencies used shared decision-making meetings (SDMMs) and data sharing.
Leaders, supervisors, and front-line staff all used these strategies throughout implementation. To improve collaboration decisions, these results were used to develop the Collaboration Across Systems for Program Implementation (CASPI) toolkit. https://u.osu.edu/collaborateforchange/sample-page/resources/collaborating-across-systems-for-program-implementation-caspi-toolkit/