On the heels of Evaluation in Education: A year in review Part 1, we bring you a second post that highlights some of the projects the Evaluation team has been busy working on over the past fiscal year.
Working internally
The Preventing and Managing Aggressive Behaviour – Revised (PMAB-R) pilot program was implemented this year through the Education Services team. Grounded in implementation science, it consisted of six modules delivered as monthly half-day sessions. Through pre-post surveys, end-of-the-day feedback forms and focus groups, the evaluation of PMAB-R focused on changes in knowledge and practice, understanding program delivery, relevance of content and areas of improvement for future program iterations. Recommendations from the evaluation are now being used to inform further development and implementation of PMAB-R.We also commenced the evaluation of “Managing Mental Health in the Workplace”, a pilot project developed by Human Resources and Organizational Development and CAMH Education. This workshop aims to provide leaders/managers the knowledge and skills to help them support members of their staff who may be experiencing mental health challenges, from initial identification and important conversations and if necessary, return to work.
The Team Huddles pilot project was implemented this year with four participating clinical units. Our team gathered literature and evidence to gain insight into the best practices for the development and design of huddles. Our evaluation of this initiative aims to assess the implementation process and measure the impact on desired outcomes related to improved staff engagement, team building, safety, and performance and quality improvement. Results are being reported to the huddles steering committee to help inform the broader rollout of this initiative across other CAMH units.
Working externally
The Evaluation team, along with Education colleagues Leslie Flores, Melissa Leaist and Rosalicia Rondon, and our partners in the Yukon, were busy planning and implementing the Yukon E-Mental Health Pilot Project Evaluation. This project examines the feasibility of implementing mental health apps to augment mental health services in the Yukon. In order to evaluate this pilot project, an implementation guide was developed by CAMH Education specialists and project stakeholders in the Yukon were trained on how to implement mental health apps in their various contexts. This important step has provided structure for the evaluation plan to be implemented, which we aim to wrap up in July 2017. The Evaluation team is also working with the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre to evaluate an online course focused on educating child welfare workers about the fundamentals of trauma-informed care.Working with our partners at the Centre for Interprofessional Education, University of Toronto and our department’s Education specialists, the Interprofessional Approaches to Creating Safe Clinical Environments course was developed and a pilot iteration facilitated. The course provides an interprofessional opportunity to address crisis intervention, violence prevention and maximizing safety in the clinical environment. The goal of the evaluation was to determine if the learning objectives for each module were met, to explore what aspects learners found beneficial, and what suggestions they had to improve future courses.
The Evaluation team continues to evaluate the delivery of Customer Service De-Escalation trainings. These are unique partnerships between the Evaluation team, Education specialists/PMAB trainers, Business Development and our external partners. This year we completed various evaluations of trainings at libraries, shopping malls, fire services, municipalities and other locations where staff work with the public. We also completed a process mapping exercise to ensure efficiency in service delivery. Within this exciting portfolio, we are continuing to prepare evaluations for trainings and plan for sustainability.
Last thoughts on 2016/2017
In addition to the projects and partnerships discussed above, the Evaluation team consulted with partners in Education, PPO, EPMO, TEACH and Performance Improvement by providing guidance on evaluation planning, tool development, facilitating focus groups, implementing surveys and conducting analysis.Needless to say, year 2016–17 was a busy one for the Evaluation team. We look forward to collaborating with more teams and more projects in the upcoming year! Please continue to follow us as we reflect on our capacity building efforts and knowledge dissemination activities.
Read the rest of this series:
Evaluation in Education: A year in review (Part One)
Evaluation in Education: Building capacity (Part Three)