11. MUSE Home Visitor Interview Questions

July 2020 OMB Control No.: 0970-0521

Expiration Date: 12/31/2021

Length of time for instrument: 2 hours

MULTI-SITE IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION OF TRIBAL HOME VISITING (MUSE)

HOME VISITOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

This collection of information is voluntary. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 2 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: 0970-0521, Exp: 12/31/2021. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Kate Lyon, James Bell Associates; 3033 Wilson Blvd. Suite 650, Arlington, VA 22201; MUSE.info@jbassoc.com.

Qualitative Interview – Home Visitor

Thank you for taking part in today’s interview. The purpose of this study is to learn about tribal home visiting programs and the experiences of families receiving home visiting services.

We have asked you to take part in this interview because you are a home visitor in one of the programs participating in MUSE. We are interested in hearing about your experience providing home visiting services through [PROGRAM NAME]. We will ask you questions about [Program Name], what you do during home visits and what things make it easier and harder for you to do your work. Because home visitors’ jobs are complex, this interview will cover a lot of topics. Please let me know if you need clarification on a question or if you need to take a break at any time.

Your participation in this interview is voluntary. If you choose to participate, it will take about 2 hours.

Your answers will be kept private. Only the MUSE study team will have access to the information you share with me today. What you tell me will not be shared with anyone at your program or any other agencies. We will not report information collected in this study in a way that could identify you or your program.

Please note that there are no right or wrong answers to the questions I am going to ask. I am interested in learning about your particular thoughts and experiences as a home visitor.

Universe of Possible Questions—Home Visitor

1. Please tell me about what led you to enter the field of home visitation.

   1. How long have you worked in this field?

   2. What did you do before you started as a home visitor? (Probe: What other fields have you worked in?)

   3. What keeps you working in home visiting?

2. What’s it like to work as a home visitor for [program/organization]?

   1. What does a typical workday look like for you? (Probe: What are your work roles and responsibilities? How much of your workday focuses on doing home visits with families?)

   2. What do you like best about working for [Agency]? What is difficult about working for [Agency]

   3. What do you like best about doing home visits as part of [program/organization]?

   4. What is the hardest part of doing home visits as part of this [program/organization]?

   5. How do home visitation services for [program/organization] differ from other places in which you may have worked or you know about?

3. What do you hope families get out of the home visitation services they receive from [program/organization]?

   1. How good of a job does [program/organization] do in helping families get these benefits?

   2. What else could [program/organization] do to meet these expectations.)

4. Based on your experience, what would you say are the skills that any parent needs to have in order to raise a happy, healthy and successful child?

1. Of these skills, which ones are most important for parents in this community [Urban sites: Native American/American Indian families in XYZ city]? Why?

2. How do parents in this community [Urban sites: American Indian/Native American parents in XYZ (i.e. “the bay area”)] generally gain these skills?

3. What makes it hard for parents to learn about or do these things? (Probe: How might these barriers differ for Native American families?)

4. How does [program] support families in gaining or strengthening these skills?

1. Why do you think parents sign up for services through [program/organization]?

   1. How do you decide if the program is a good fit for a family?

   2. In general, what are the major strengths of families who have joined the program?

   3. What do you see as the biggest needs of parents who participate?

   4. How does [program/organization] support families in meeting these needs?

   5. What are the biggest challenges that [program/organization] faces in meeting these needs?

   6. In what ways do you think the families who [program/organization] serves have similar or different reasons for seeking out home visiting services than families in other communities?

6. If someone you just met who didn’t know anything about home visiting asked you what you did, how would you explain the work you do with families?

7. How do you go about planning or preparing for a home visit?

   1. How do you decide what you are going to do during a home visit? (Probe: What do you usually include in the plans that you develop?)

   2. What situations lead you to adjust what you do in a home visit from what you planned to do? (Probe: When do these situations arise?)

   3. How do you decide when and how to adjust the plan for a given family?

8. What are some of the most challenging things that you encounter in home visits? (Probe: Potential challenges can include providing home visits in chaotic home environments, getting parents to focus on home visit, getting past crisis management.)

   1. How do go about handling situations that involve these challenges?

9. How has COVID-19 and related responses impacted your home visits?

   1. Can you describe what changes you have made in order to continue delivering home visits?

   2. How have these changes gone?

   3. What impact do you think these adjustments have had on the quality of your home visits?

   4. Why do you think it was important to continue to provide home visits during this time?

   5. What have you learned from doing [add strategy e.g. virtual] that you will continue to do once home visits are in person again?

10. Please tell me about a recent home visit that went very well? (Probe: What was happening during the visit? What do you think made the visit work out so well?)

11. Can you tell me about a recent home visit that did not work out so well? (Probe: What was happening during the visit? What do you think negatively influenced this particular home visit?)

12. Please tell me about your current caseload? First off…

    1. How many families do you serve?

    2. How has your caseload changed over time? What influenced those changes?

    3. Are your families generally stable, or are many of them in crisis most of the time?

    4. When do you find it easier or more difficult to manage your caseload?

    5. What would you change about your caseload if you could?

    6. What kind of support does [program/organization] provide you in managing your caseload?

13. How can you tell when you have a good relationship with a family on your caseload?

    1. What are the key ingredients of a good relationship?

    2. How can you tell when the relationship with a family is not going so well?

    3. How do you handle such situations when they happen?

14. What do you do to build good relationships with the families you serve?

    1. How many visits does it typically take to build a good relationship? How does your relationship with a family change over time?

    2. How did you figure out how to go about building a good relationship?

    3. What makes it easier for you to develop a good relationship with a family? What makes it harder?

    4. What kind of support do you need in building a good relationship with a family? (Probe: Do you have easy access to this type of support at [program/organization]?)

15. How are new families assigned to your case load?

    1. How do you decide what to do with a family who has just joined the program?

    2. How do you make sure that families get the right amount of home visiting? (Probe: how do you keep families coming to visits as scheduled?)

    3. How do you determine when a family is ready to stop home visiting?

16. Please tell me about the one-on-one supervision you receive.

    1. How often does this happen?

    2. Who provides your one-on-one supervision?

    3. What kinds of things do you typically talk about during one-on-one supervision?

    4. What is most helpful about the one-on-one supervision?

    5. What is least helpful about the one-on-one supervision?

    6. What do you wish was different about your one-on-one supervision?

17. Do you have opportunity to take part in group supervision?

    1. How often does this happen?

    2. Who provides your group supervision?

    3. What kinds of things do you typically talking about during group supervision?

    4. What is most helpful about the group supervision?

    5. What is least helpful about the group supervision?

18. How does your [program/organization] support you in doing a good job as a home visitor? (Probe: For example, does it provide ongoing training opportunities? If so, what topics do these opportunities address, such as cultural, mental health, or child development issues? Does it support you through coaching? What type of support do you get from your peers?)

19. Earlier in the interview, you mentioned some challenges you experience in your work as a home visitor. Thinking about those challenges specifically [take a second to refer back together], what could your agency do to support you even more in your role as a home visitor? (Probes: structure supervision differently?

20. What were your initial impressions of [model/curriculum]? (Probe: How did you first become aware of [model/curriculum] about it? How long have you been using it? Did you think the model was going to be difficult or easy to use? What other expectations did you have?)

21. How did you learn how to use [model/curriculum]?

    1. How confident do you feel using the model/curriculum with the families you serve?

    2. What has helped you to gain confidence using the model/curriculum?

    3. What kind of support do you need to feel even more confident in using the model/curriculum?)

22. To what extent has [model/curriculum] met your expectations? (Probe: How has it not met your expectations? Refer to response to Question 21.)

23. To what extent does [model/curriculum] do a good job in meeting needs of the families you serve?

1. To what extent does it do a good job in addressing the needs of the communities you serve?

2. To what extent does [model/curriculum] consider your own needs as a home visitor?

3. How have you supplemented or augmented the program to do a better job?

24. How well does [model/curriculum] fit in with the norms or values of the family’s you serve?

    1. How well does it fit in with the norms or values of the communities that you serve?

    2. How well does it fit in with your own norms or values?

    3. How does the overall fit of [model/curriculum] influence when and with whom to use it?

25. Please describe any situations in which you tweaked or adjusted a particular lesson or curriculum to make work better with a family.

    1. In what situations are you most likely to stick with [model/curriculum] exactly?

    2. In what situations are you most likely to make changes to [model/curriculum]?

    3. How have you had to change the way you use [model/curriculum] due to COVID-19?

       1. What supports did you receive from the model developers during this time? What was most/least helpful?

26. What would you change about [model/curriculum]? (Probe: Why would make these changes.)

27. What is the biggest benefit of home visiting for the families you serve through program/organization]?

28. What most influences whether a family will get that benefit out of your program? (Probe: my success as a home visitor? Using the model well? Fit? Family’s investment in program? Supplemental programming? Connection to community resources?)

29. What most influences your ability to feel good about your work as a home visitor? (Probe: The size/characteristics of your caseload? Your relationship with a family? How successful you feel in your work with families? The supervision you receive? Understanding how to use a particular model/curriculum? Feeling as though the model/curriculum will or will not work families? The amount of effort required for you to use a model/curriculum properly? The degree to which a family is engaged?)

1. How has this changed since COVID-19?

30. Is there anything that we have not talked about regarding your experience as a home visitor here at [name of program/organization], the [model/curriculum] or the home visitation services you provide that you would like to share?

Multi-Site Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting OMB Supporting Documents: Home Visitor Interview Questions

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