Please provide respond to the following survey questions.

A Concept for Enhancing Placement Services and Outcomes:
The Georgia Array of Services Continuum Initiative

It is the responsibility of providers of services for children that enter into care to ensure that each child receives the best quality of care that will produce the most successful outcome for their future. In addition, it becomes crucial that those referring children for services can make these critical placement decisions and have an instrument that can provide them with some degree of certainty as to what functional outcomes they can expect from the services the child will receive at the chosen placement. Beginning with the Governor’s Child Welfare Reform Council Georgia stakeholders have entered a phase of innovation and critical evaluation; Together Georgia is on board. The proper placement of a child is crucial to their success in the system of care; science now tells us that by reducing failed or unproductive placement we reduce trauma and allow for the child to continue growing in a situation that is best for them. The Georgia Array of Services Continuum Initiative, building upon DFCS’s current matching tool, will become an instrument that will greatly enhance child placement efficiency and outcomes for the children.

The Georgia Array of Services Continuum may include:
• All available services that are offered to children in the state of Georgia
• Classification characteristics of youth being placed (such as: age, sex, diagnosis, trauma index, substance abuse, number of placements, etc)
• The characteristics will be entered into an algorithm that will produce an index number that should guide placement decisions.
This index number will be tied to determined outcome success percentages across The Georgia Array of Services Continuum Matrix (rough discussion draft attached). Therefore, placing the child in a service or program that has a low outcome success percentage that correlates with their index number would be discouraged. This initiative would utilize predictive analytics, agreed upon meaningful child characteristics, standardized functional outcomes, and predicted successes and could greatly augment and enhance the current systems of Georgia Score, Georgia SHINE, and the DFCS Matching Tool. The goal is to provide the best placement for each individual child that will allow for that child to achieve the best outcomes from care.

In order to begin meaningful work on this initiative we need your input. Please take a few minutes and provide feedback on the survey below. Thank you.

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* 1. Can you understand by the  above description the intent of this initiative?

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* 2. Would you be willing to support the Georgia Array of Services Initiative?

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* 3. Based on the description of this initiative, what improvements would you suggest?

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* 4. Do you believe this initiative, if successfully implemented, would serve children and families better than what we are currently doing with regards to placements and outcomes?

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* 5. Do you believe this initiative is feasible?

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* 6. Do you believe that a system like this initiative could have an impact on resource allocations? 

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* 7. To create an algorithm that will predict reliable percentages of success for placements, we first must create an agreed upon set of characteristics to “describe” the child. What do you believe these characteristics should be (i.e. age, sex, diagnoses, trauma index, diagnosis etc.)?

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* 8. How should we define success (functionality or by other metrics)? Do you know of any specific standardized instruments that you would recommend are considered either as stand alone or in combination?

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* 9. If you believe success should be measured by functionality, what functional areas tell us that a child is successful (i.e. school attendance, employment, drug usage, criminal record, following discharge counseling/treatment planning, etc.)?

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* 10. Looking at the rough draft describing a Georgia Array of Services that has been provided, what services/programs are missing? Where should the services/programs you recommend fit into on the continuum?

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* 11. What are your current thoughts on what percentage of children served will be in each of the major categories of service in your ideal array?  (make sure the three add up to 100%)

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* 12. What would be the best way to incorporate/display Wrap Around services on the continuum? (The solution to this question is very critical and important because wrap around services have the potential to optimize placement options along the array.)

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* 13. We know of some work being done by Bruce Chorpita and others on creating this type of model. Can you suggest other work already being done in this area?

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* 14. Please review the linked spreadsheet and provide feedback

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* 15. Other thoughts and ideas?

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* 16. Contact (optional)

Thank you! Your input will guide us with our next iterations.

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