HARC HERALD
Volume 1. Issue 4.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter
LETTER FROM THE HARC COUNCIL CHAIR
Welcome to the fourth HARC Herald! Happy Anniversary to us - we have been doing these for one year now. This is a newsletter of transition and change, including a very sad loss for the field.

First, we have made some changes to our network. HARC proved so popular a handle that we have decided to use it to rename our whole national network. We are now all HARC, all the time, and we will no longer use the name Home Visiting Research Network to describe our overall structure. Our website has changed as well, to www.hvresearch.org. But fear not, HARC members, our practice-based research network has not disappeared or changed. It is still a vital element and a primary way to conduct and promote innovate research to move the field of home visiting forward.  But we wanted to recognize the collaborative nature of all of the different research elements that are part of our overall network, even those that are not directly applicable to our practice-based research network. And having two different acronyms (HVRN and HARC) simply proved confusing to many people. This change was announced at our May 6  Collaborative Science of Home Visiting meeting. That was a great day and we had fantastic turn-out. It was wonderful to see so many of you in person. Thanks to all for participating in the first of what we hope to be many more gatherings to come.

But this highlight is followed by a deep loss. On August 23rd, Mark Chaffin, a valued member of our management team and a HARC Council member, passed away unexpectedly. As I write this I am still trying to process his passing and what that will mean to HARC and the field overall. Mark was a true leader and a strong voice in the field of home visiting and child welfare for decades. Those who knew him personally could attest to his kindness as a colleague and his enthusiasm for discussion and debate of important issues. We all will miss him terribly. 

Despite this sadness, we do carry on, as we have to in these situations. There is much to look forward to in the months to come. Several studies are being launched, and the recently announced grant support for the design or conduct of studies to promote the home visiting research agenda promises to generate even more innovative research. Thank you as always for joining us in our adventures and we will meet again at the end of the year.

Jon Korfmacher
Mark
MARK CHAFFIN
We use this space to honor our recently departed colleague, Mark Chaffin. Mark was Professor in Health Promotion and Behavior at Georgia State University's School of Public Health since 2014.  For 17 years previously he was Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Director of Research in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.

Mark  was a psychologist by training, earning his doctoral degree  at the University of Oklahoma  and completing a fellowship in pediatric psychology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine . During his remarkable career as an academic researcher, Mark led many studies involving implementation of evidence-based practice models across networks of providers and service systems, such as child welfare, juvenile justice, and early childhood. Most of these studies focused on implementing psychosocial or parenting models. Many of his studies included developing and testing coaching as an implementation strategy to assure staff competence and adapting home-based service models for scaled up field use. 

Mark's particular expertise was in deploying data collection and measurement systems within implementation research and identifying key elements for technology transfer at patient, provider, clinic and system levels. He was HARC's go-to expert on how to manage and analyze administrative data, and he was instrumental in the successful launch of our Collaborative Science of Home Visiting meeting in May of this year.

These words, however, only hint at the breadth of his interests and expertise.  Anybody who had the good fortune to hear him speak, ask him a question, or listen to him in a conference call, knows how good he was at thinking on the spot, at delivering incisive and well-informed opinions on a vast variety of topics. He did not shy away from controversy and often had provocative opinions about the current state of the home visiting and child welfare field. Services for vulnerable families are all the stronger for his asking hard questions about our field and its evolution. Mark was always willing to listen and consider the opinions of others. He had sterling wit. He could hold his end of the conversation in any social gathering, cocktailed or otherwise. 

  Mark was just highlighted in the most recent newsletter (Number 3), which can be found in our archives . His simple answer to our query of which historical figure he would choose to meet ("Elvis, of course") lets you know that he had no problem getting into the vicinity of fun. And though he took to heart the seriousness of his work, he never took himself too seriously.

Last fall, Mark was keynote speaker at Prevent Child Abuse Georgia. His talk, which is archived,  is a wonderful summing up of his intellect and passion. We encourage you to view it.

So join with us please in mourning this loss and sending our deep condolences to Mark's family and colleagues. How lucky we were to have him help set HARC's course in its first three years.
Members
MEET SOME HARC MEMBERS
Please look for our special issue coming out soon that highlights some of our awesome HARC members. Thank you to those who sent in videos already, we have over 10 states represented so far! If you want to be included in this special issue, fear not! We have re-opened submissions and are accepting more short videos from HARC members. 

Please include your name, the city/state that you work in, and the name of your program/network/or organization that you conduct research for. Click here for an example and email your final product to HARC@jhu.edu.
CouncilMember
MEET A HARC COUNCIL MEMBER
Who are you?
Sally Baggett

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I joined the HARC network as a direct service provider. I am the Director of Patient and Family Support for Carolina Health Centers, Inc., a community health center organization serving as the health care home for over 25,000 patients across a seven-county area of west-central South Carolina. I also participate in HARC as a liaison for SC Healthy Steps sites in eight additional health care organizations. Healthy Steps is one of three early childhood home visitation program models supported at Carolina Health Centers. Our continuum of home visitation within primary health care also includes the Nurse-Family Partnership and the Healthy Families America program models. Carolina Health Centers is working on the integration of behavioral health into pediatric and family practice medical homes. This year we will join two other SC sites in piloting the integration of behavioral health into our home visitation services. I enjoy the challenges of creative collaboration while working across the disciplines of health care, early childhood home visitation and behavioral health. My focus now is the sustainability of our integrated model along with quality improvements in all aspects of child health and wellness (while trying to be the best grandmamma possible to three adorable toddlers).

What made you interested in being part of HARC?
HARC offers connections to a larger network. I especially appreciate the opportunities to help strengthen the communications between researchers and practitioners. It is rewarding to have a small voice in helping advance the field of early childhood home visitation.

What are you most excited about/interested in/challenged by in the field of early childhood home visiting?
I am interested in continuing innovations in response to evolving research. I am especially interested in how we provide the best fit to meet individual family needs while remaining focused on population health measures. Our site has worked to find the commonalities across program models and to explore how we have the most flexibility to serve families while retaining the elements that promote positive outcomes. I stumbled upon opportunities to integrate home visitation with pediatric care years ago and am so excited to see the growing interest and support of this team based approach to child wellness.

What's a good book that you have read recently?
I tend to read several books by an author at a time. I just finished All the Light We Cannot See, the Shell Collector Stories and About Grace by Anthony Doerr. I started this group because of the shell collector title. As a child, my family had quite the shell collection with annual Christmas trips to Sanibel Island when you had to arrive by ferry. I am also reading War of the Whales: A True Story after seeing whales bubble net feeding in Alaska.

If you could meet any historical figure, who would it be?
This is a hard question - I want to meet more than one. I guess today I will pick the person my youngest grandson is named for - Lincoln.
 
 Want to be featured in our next newsletter? Contact us at HARC@jhu.edu.

Studies
CURRENT RESEARCH STUDIES
Our third HARC study focuses on the involvement of military-connected families in home visiting and is currently in the second phase of data collection. Thank you to all of the programs who have completed the online survey, your contributions are very much appreciated. Phone interviews will be completed this month with a small subset of program sites.

Our fourth HARC study is in the field! And this time, the tables are turned-researchers are the participants! This survey involves reviewing guidelines that home visiting researchers can use when reporting results of their studies. Such an important topic! Who would not want to participate? And wait...there is also a stipend for completing the survey? Sign me up!  We are inviting all our HARC home visiting researchers to participate in this study. Please email us at HARC@jhu.edu if you are a researcher and have not yet received a link to the survey. 

HARC RESEARCH FINDINGS
A brief on family engagement is available now for your review, and coming in the next month is a brief on coordination with medical providers. Stay tuned!

For more information on all of our HARC studies, please click the link below to find our projects tab on our website.

 
RFP
HARC REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
In July we sent out a request for proposals to all HARC members inviting you to submit proposals for your own agenda-driven HARC studies. There are four available grants worth $5,000 each and submission is currently open as of September 1st. 

We look forward to seeing some of your ideas for moving the field of home visiting forward! 

Funding decisions will be made within six weeks of submission. For more information please visit our website.

 
Collab
COLLABORATIVE SCIENCE OF HOME VISITING MEETING
TIES Program Poster
Thank you so much to the 115 attendees at our first  Collaborative Science of Home Visiting meeting this past May. We heard some great presentations on topic s ranging from the impact of home visiting on the prevention  of unintentional injury to the evidence for synergy between home visiting and maternal depression treatment. If you would like to check out these great presentations and posters head over to our website for more information!

 
Five different work groups also came together to discuss core and cross model elements, administrative data and secondary data analysis, workforce development, process and observation, and networking and community integration. If you would like to learn more about the ideas that came from these sessions, please  email us .

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all again in the future!
News
HARC MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
Lorraine Mckelvey*, Rachel F. Schiffman, Holly E. Brophy-Herb, Erika London Bocknek, Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Thomas M. Reischl, Shelley Hawver, and Mary Cunningham Deluca
This study examined impacts of an Infant Mental Health home-based Early Head Start (IMH-HB EHS) program on family functioning. Mothers who received IMH-HB EHS services reported healthier psychological and family functioning, outcomes that are consistent with the IMH focus, when their children were between the ages of 3 and 7 years of age. Specifically, mothers in the IMH-HB EHS group reported healthier family functioning and relationships, better coping skills needed to advocate for their families, and less stress in the parenting role versus those in the comparison condition.

Michaela L. Zajicek-Farber*, Gaetano R. Lotrecchiano, Toby M. Long, Jon Matthew Farber

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of families with their experiences of FCC in medical homes for CNDD. Based on an accepted definition of medical home services, 16 % of parents reported their CNDD had most aspects of a medical home, 64 % had some, and 20 % had none. Strengths in FCC were primarily evident in the family-provider partnership and care settings when focused on meeting the medical care needs of the child. Weaknesses in FCC were noted in meeting the needs of families, coordination, follow-up, and support with community resources.

Bonnie D. Kerker, Jinjin Zhang, Erum Nadeem, Ruth E.K. Stein, Michael S. Hurlburt, Amy Heneghan, John Landsverk*, Sarah McCue Horwitz

Objective:
To determine the relationships between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health, chronic medical conditions, and social development among young children in the child welfare system.

Conclusions:
ACEs were associated with poor early childhood mental health and chronic medical conditions, and, among children aged 3 to 5, social development. Efforts are needed to examine whether providing early intervention to families with multiple stressors mitigates the impact of ACEs on children's outcomes.


*Our wonderful HARC Members contributing to the field! If you have any news to share (an article in a journal, a local newspaper clipping, or a milestone for your program) please email us at  HARC@jhu.edu and we will include your success in the next newsletter! We know that these tasty slices are not all that is happening out there - we want to hear from you! Don't be afraid to brag.
Have a question about HARC? See our FAQ Document. If your question isn't answered there, please email us at HARC@jhu.edu.

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