Marking progress toward service integration: learning to use evaluation to overcome barriers.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Social Policy
• Program Evaluation

Background:

• Service integration efforts often face barriers attributed to federal statutes and funding streams.
• However, state and local factors also significantly impede successful service integration initiatives.
• Georgia's Family Connection initiative provides a case study for examining these multifaceted barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine five types of barriers to service integration at the state and local levels.
• To develop and pilot an evaluation instrument and process for assessing local-level progress in service integration.
• To understand how this instrument can guide and measure service integration efforts within specific communities.

Main Methods:

• A case study approach was employed, focusing on Georgia's Family Connection.
• An evaluation instrument and process were developed to assess local service integration progress.
• A pilot study was conducted to test the efficacy of the developed evaluation instrument.

Main Results:

• The evaluation instrument can define starting points for service integration.
• It helps identify feasible service integration activities tailored to community contexts.
• The instrument aids in specifying time allocation, local costs/benefits, and self-assessment for service integration.

Conclusions:

• Service integration challenges are present at multiple governmental levels.
• A locally-focused evaluation instrument can effectively guide and measure service integration progress.
• This tool supports communities in planning, implementing, and assessing their unique service integration efforts.