Wraparound (childcare) - Program Evaluation and Evidence For Effectiveness

Program Evaluation and Evidence For Effectiveness

The wraparound process has been implemented widely across the United States and internationally because of the documentation of its successful use in several communities, its alignment with the value base for systems of care, and its resonance with families and family advocates. However, the formal wraparound research base has been slow to develop because of several reasons: (1) its status as a care management process rather than a focal treatment for a specific disorder; (2) its grassroots development rather than development by a single research team; and (3) its individualized nature, in that the identified needs and specific strategies for each family participating in wraparound should be unique. Thus, at the current juncture, there is some consensus that the research base on wraparound is largely positive but that more rigorous evaluation is needed (Farmer, Dorsey, & Mustillo, (2004)).

At the same time, the research base on wraparound continues to expand and evolve:

• To date, positive results have been found from three published experimental studies, six published quasi-experimental studies, and numerous pre-post longitudinal studies.
• The wraparound process has been cited as a promising practice in Surgeon General’s reports on both youth violence and mental health.
• Since the wraparound practice model has been more fully specified, four random assignment control studies have been begun in four different locations, all with a consistent practice model and training and coaching model. Fidelity measures aligned with the wraparound model described above are also now available and in use in all the above studies.

A review of outcomes studies as of 2002 is provided in Burchard, Bruns, & Burchard (2002), and is currently being updated. Other reviews and information are available at the National Wraparound Initiative website (see, for example, Suter & Bruns, 2008, at http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/NWI-book/pgChapter3.shtml). A summary table of published wraparound evaluation studies is provided at the end of this entry.