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EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF FAMILY MENTORSHIP FOR
LEND TRAINEES AT THE WESTCHESTER INSTITUTE FOR
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Barbara Levitz MS 1,2 John
Laurence Miller PhD 1,2 Karen Edwards MD MPH
1,2 1 Westchester Institute for Human
Development, Valhalla, NY 2 School of Public
Health, New York Medical College, Valhalla,
NY Presented at the 2007 AUCD National Meeting
Washington DC
Pre-test / Post-test self-assessment items
BACKGROUND
RESULTS

• Family Mentorship is a component of the LEND
  leadership curriculum at WIHD.
• Matches trainees for visits with families who
  have children or youth with disabilities or
  special health care needs.
• Goal is to learn from a family about the impact
  of having a child with a disability, their
  experiences working in partnership with
  professionals from various disciplines, and the
  responsiveness of service systems to the familys
  needs and desires.
• Several evaluation methods are used.

For all nine items, pre-test/post-test
differences were statistically significant
(plt.01) and for six items, differences were
highly significant (plt.001). Average pre-test and
post-test scores were 25.4 and 35.5 out of 45.
These results demonstrate that WIHD LEND trainees
self-assessed that they had benefited from the
Family Mentorship program in ways consistent with
the programs goals. Content of narratives was
consistent with questionnaire results.

• Each item is followed by the value for Mann
  Whitneys U for the comparison of pre- and
  post-test responses and the related p value, in
  parenthesis.
• 1) Understand the impact of a child with special
  needs on general family functioning (175.5,
  plt.01).
• 2) Identify elements in a family with a child
  with special needs that are the same as a family
  with typically-developing children (195,
  plt.001).
• 3) Accept differing priorities and styles of
  functioning among families of children with
  special needs (194, plt.001).
• 4) Have an awareness of how families of children
  with special needs are treated by the public
  (188, plt.001).
• 5) Have an awareness of how families of children
  with special needs are treated by professionals
  (166, plt.01).
• 6) Understand the importance and meaning of
  leisure time and friendships to children with
  special needs and their families (182.5 ,
  plt.001).
• 7) Understand the type and extent of
  relationships at school and in the community that
  are important for families of children with
  special needs (185, plt.001).
• 8) Understand how a sibling with special needs
  affects other siblings in the family (177.5,
  plt.01).
• Have an awareness of the unique needs and
  challenges for families of children with special
  needs as they seek and receive medical care and
  other health-related services (100.5, plt.001).
• Statistically significant, one-tailed
• Highly statistically significant, one-tailed
• Response scale
• 1 beginning level of understanding
• 2 exposed to enough to have gained some insight
• 3 average level of understanding
• 4 good level of understanding
• 5 goal met to your full expectations

RESEARCH QUESTION
NARRATIVE COMMENTS BY TRAINEES CONCERNING THE
FAMILY MENTORING EXPERIENCE
Did the 2006-07 Family Mentorship experience
provide an effective training on family-centered
and family-directed practices for LEND Trainees?
Excellent!!! So valuable in its
entiretyEnlightening and powerful
experienceEvery aspect was helpfulProvided a
wealth of information Spending a day in the life
and receiving direct insightLearning about
experiences and feelingsA personal experience
about what we speak of in LENDPresentation to a
group helped bring home the important lessons to
be learned
Average Pre-test score 25.4 Average post-test
score 35.5
METHODS

• 15 LEND trainees completed a nine-item self
  assessment questionnaire with 5-point response
  scale (a revised version of a Wisconsin LEND
  tool) before and after the Family Mentorship
  project. Pre-test and post-test results were
  compared using a Mann Whitney U Test
  (one-tailed). Trainees also provided narratives
  based on their home and community visits.
• Additional methods of evaluation included
• Written post-visit observation/impressions form.
• Group reflections session with the LEND Director,
  family faculty, and family discipline trainees .
• Verbal and written feedback to LEND director and
  other faculty about this training element as part
  of end of year LEND program evaluation by
  trainees.

DISCUSSION

• The Family Mentorship program resulted in
  positive self-assessed outcomes for trainees on
  all nine test items.
• Self report data provided prima facie evidence of
  the Family Mentorship modules pedagogical
  effectiveness in helping LEND trainees attain the
  Family Centered Care competency of the MCH
  Leadership Competencies (v.2).
• Limitations include the inherent limitations of
  self-assessment-only evaluations and the fact
  that the sample came from only one LEND training
  program, perhaps limiting generalizability. Next
  steps might include a) administering the test to
  a sample of trainees from multiple LEND Family
  Mentorship programs and b) expanding the outcomes
  measure to include a composite of data from other
  forms of evaluation.