Grantee Name: University of Oklahoma School of Social Work

Grant Title: Centro de Evaluación: US/Mexico Border Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center

Grant Number: 1H97HA00180-01

Project Director: David D. Barney, MSW, MPH, PhD

Budget Period: July 1, 2000 – December 31, 2000

Project Officer: Barbara Aranda-Naranjo, PhD

The project was implemented on September 1, 2000, following approval of the University of Oklahoma, Norman Campus, Institutional Review Board application on August 31, 2000. The initial efforts included establishing contact with the five demonstration projects funded under the HRSA/SPNS Border Health Initiative, formalizing the Centro de Evaluación web page, and scheduling a grantee multi-site evaluation meeting. The Project Director, Elizabeth Duran, was hired on September 15, 2000. No other staff were hired during the first six months of the grant period.

As of December 31, 2000, no refinements have been made to the project work plan or timeline.

Information has been provided to service providers, potential clients, and other Ryan White agencies via the internet (http://www.ou.edu/border).

The project program plan covers multiple tasks to be achieved during the first six months of Year 01 grant period. No revisions have been made to the program plan. The following is a brief review of tasks completed during this reporting period.

Technical Assistance and Site Visits: All demonstration sites were contacted and requested that they submit project technical assistance needs to the Centro de Evaluación. Additionally, the Centro de Evaluación posted a technical assistance request form on the Centro’s web page for electronic submission of TA requests by demonstration sites. Sites may also request assistance via telephone, correspondence, or e-mail. All sites received technical assistance site visits during the first six months of the project period. Following is a list of the site visits, with names of HRSA staff in attendance, as well as Centro de Evaluación staff:

Technical assistance site visits were conducted between October and December, 2000. The purpose of the site visits was to provide technical assistance with development of local evaluation efforts (refinement of logic model), identify service components that would be common across the five demonstration sites for multi-site evaluation, meet with collaborating partners to clarify role in demonstration project, and discuss future technical assistance needs. Detailed notes on discussions held at each site visit were compiled and made available to the individual sites.

No barriers have been encountered during implementation of the project.

The first grantee’s meeting was held in Norman, OK at the US Postal Training Center on September 15-16, 2000. In attendance were 27-participants representing the five demonstration sites, HRSA Project staff, and Centro de Evaluación staff. The meeting agenda included review of local demonstration project logic models; discussion and selection of core data elements for demographic module for multi-site evaluation, designation of local project data contacts; and discussion of qualitative research. Future evaluation planning was an integral component of the meeting resulting in the outline of other data modules to be designed, scheduling of site visits, and discussion of technical assistance available to demonstration projects by the Centro de Evaluación. Additionally, demonstration sites were asked to formulate potential research questions to be explored with data collected from the multi-site evaluation.

An outcome of the grantee’s meeting was a decision to pursue qualitative interviews at local project sites to examine the influence of culture on definitions of homosexuality and access to health care. The Centro de Evaluación staff developed and submitted an application to the University Institutional Review Board (IRB) requesting approval to conduct focus groups with demonstration project clients. The application was submitted on October 1, 2000 with requested IRB revisions submitted on January 2, 2001. A final determination has not been received from the University of Oklahoma, Norman IRB.

The period of October to December involved communication with demonstration sites via conference calls and electronic mail to identify variables for data modules to be used for collection of data for the multi-site evaluation and to develop research questions to be answered with the multi-site data. Data modules developed for review and approval by the grantees are the Demographics, Lifestyles, Risk Factors, Quality of Life, Program Support, and Client Satisfaction. All modules have been developed in English which will be translated into Spanish after the modules are approved by the grantees. These modules are to be presented to the grantees at the second grantees meeting to be held in January, 2001. The code book for the data modules was drafted during this time period with a final draft to be completed prior to the Data Manager’s Training to be held in January 2001.

Centro de Evaluación purchased TELEform software for management of data collection. Teleform allows data to be collected either by submission of completed paper forms or electronic submission via the internet. All data modules were developed in TELEform. A special account has been established through the university internet system for data submission which is password secured. The account is only accessible by local demonstration sites for electronic input and Centro de Evaluación staff for data retrieval. All sites have been provided with a password that will allow them to access to the electronic and paper forms.

Dissemination efforts completed during this reporting period include completion of the Centro de Evaluación web page which is updated frequently with conference call notes, meeting notes, update on scheduled meetings and activities, data modules for review and feedback, pictures of site visits and meetings, and other information relevant to demonstration sites and multi-site evaluation.

Fact sheets were not initiated at this time. It is planned to hire two graduate research assistants during the Spring semester of 2001 to conduct the literature reviews and assist in the development of fact sheets to be posted on the Centro’s web page and for mailing as requested.

The demonstration sites and the Centro de Evaluación staff have tentatively discussed plans to present as a group, descriptive information on each of the demonstration sites and multi-site evaluation at two national meetings. The two identified meetings are the US/Mexico Border Health Association meeting to be held in Las Cruces, NM in May 2001 and the American Public Health Association conference to be held in October 2001 in Atlanta, GA. These presentations will result in a descriptive article(s) to be submitted to a refereed journal for review.

The evaluation plan has not changed. Following is the Logic model for the multi-site evaluation:

Preliminary agreements reached by grantees includes agreement to collect qualitative data in the future. The qualitative focus groups will be coordinated by the Centro de Evaluación. Demonstration sites will assist with participant recruitment, provide meeting space, and identify key informants for case studies. The Centro will be responsible for conducting the focus and key informant interviews, arranging for transcription of tapes, coding data, and data analysis, as well as obtaining IRB approval prior to initiating the qualitative research.

The grantees have also agreed to collect quantitative data by using data modules developed by the Centro de Evaluación with input from all sites. Grantee have agreed to participate in conference calls, grantee meetings, and data training as part of the evaluation process. Additionally, all grantees are in agreement to participate in dissemination of descriptive information about the projects and the evaluation efforts during the up-coming reporting period.

Data to be collected will be on modules developed by the Centro de Evaluación and approved by the demonstration sites. The modules that have been completed and are pending review/approval by grantees in January 2001 are Demographics, Lifestyles, Risk Factors, Quality of Life, Program Support, and Client Satisfaction. Local sites will not implement their projects or data collection efforts until the modules have been approved and their data managers have been trained on the use of the modules and code book. Tentatively it is anticipated that all projects will be implemented by February 1, 2001.

Modules for data collection have been developed on Teleform software. All data modules will be available for completion in paper copy or through electronic form. All data will be entered into an Excel data file and analyzed using SPSS software.

Technical assistance provided to demonstration sites has been discussed in Section 1 – Progress on Project Objectives. Types of potential assistance available includes assistance with local evaluation; developing local surveys and instruments; assessment of agency MIS; confidentiality and human subjects protection; data entry; quality assurance on data; analysis of local data, and development of dissemination plans. At present, all technical assistance has been limited to local evaluation plans and logic model.