Take Two - Third Evaluation Report More than Words ... - Berry Street

changes directly for the children, such as to enhance
their emotional, behavioural, social, cultural, and/or
physical wellbeing; reduce emotional and behavioural
symptoms; and to support recovery from trauma. Other
desired outcomes included to strengthen parents, carers
and others’ capacity to meet the children’s emotional,
developmental and other needs.
Although more research is required to understand ‘what
works’, this report provides an in-depth description of
Take Two’s therapeutic activities. The highest proportion
of time spent on therapeutic activity by Take Two was
in individual work with children, followed by work with
parents and carers about the children. There is also a
high degree of activity spent in working therapeutically
with the service system. The report also outlines Take
Two’s consultation role regarding children who are not
clients. This is an important role well recognised as
valuable, however, further analysis is required.
4. Outcomes for children
This evaluation report has been able to expand on the
previous report in documenting evidence of positive
outcomes for Take Two clients. The second evaluation
report identi ed positive trends in client outcomes
and this report presents statistically signi cant
positive outcomes. This is notable given the program
commenced in 2004 and had to create, consult, train
and implement an outcomes framework at the same
time as the program itself was being created.
The outcomes framework developed by Take Two
includes four outcome measures. These are the
Strengths and Dif culties Questionnaire (SDQ;
Goodman, 1997), the Trauma Symptom Checklist for
Children (TSCC; Briere, 1996), the Trauma Symptom
Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC; Briere, 2005)
and Social Network Maps (Tracy & Whittaker, 1990).
In addition to measuring outcomes, these measures
have also been valuable to describe different aspects of
the children’s situation at baseline. The fourth type of
measure used in this evaluation is the stakeholder and
clinicians’ feedback through use of surveys.
4.1 Emotional and behavioural symptoms
Emotional and behavioural symptoms — baseline
data
Over 500 SDQs were completed providing baseline data
and are reported in Chapter 7. Findings at baseline
supported the conclusion that many of the children
presented in the borderline or clinical range in various
areas of dif culties. Carers (67%), followed by parents
(60%), teachers (53%) and then the young people
themselves (46%) reported three or more out of ve
scales in the clinical range. Similarly, the total dif culties
score was reported in the borderline or clinical range
for the large majority of children according to all types
of respondents. The analysis showed that the majority
of children had experienced problems for over a year.
Moreover, all groups of respondents noted that the
dif culties impacted upon the daily lives of the children
and others, such as family, friends and school. Further
study as the sample size grows will include triangulation
of the data across different types of respondents for
each child.
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The analysis compared results from the HCA analysis
with the SDQ data. The ndings though preliminary
indicate different associations between abuse and
neglect and perception of dif culties by the young
people, parents, carers and teachers. This was the rst
time this type of analysis was attempted and only the
total dif culties scores in the SDQs were analysed. The
ndings require more detailed exploration over time as
the sample grows of those for whom there is an SDQ.
Emotional and behavioural symptoms —
outcomes data
SDQs repeated over two time periods were completed
by 58 children, 20 parents, 70 carers and 66 teachers.
There were reductions between those reported in the
clinical range from the rst to the last SDQs in each scale
and total dif culties scores according to all respondent
types. These reductions were most commonly
signi cant in the SDQs completed by the young people.
For example, there was a signi cant number of young
people who were no longer in the clinical range in
terms of conduct problems, hyperactivity, prosocial
behaviours and total dif culties scores. The other
signi cant reduction was reported in the parents’ SDQs
regarding fewer children’s total dif culties scores being
in the clinical range.
Analysis of reductions in the mean scores over time
found a reduction according to the young person’s SDQs
on all the scales with signi cant reductions in concerns
regarding conduct, hyperactive and psychosocial
scales. There were signi cant reductions in the mean
scores according to the parents’ SDQs in the areas
of the children’s conduct problems, hyperactivity
and total dif culties scores. Analysis of carers’ SDQs
found a signi cant reduction in the mean score of peer
problems over time. Teachers reported the least change
over time, but were also the only ones included in the
analysis where the SDQs were not always completed by
the same teacher over the different time periods.
A question in the follow-up version of the SDQ asked
respondents whether or not the service was helpful.
The majority of all respondent types reported that Take
Two made the children’s problems better and that the
service was helpful in other ways.
4.2 Trauma symptoms
Trauma-related baseline data
As reported in Chapter 8, the valid TSCCs were
completed at baseline for 105 children. The baseline
data show that many Take Two clients scored highly in
the clinical range of trauma-related symptoms. Fortysix
percent of the TSCCs had at least one scale and 28
percent had more than one scale in the clinical range.
There were 90 TSCYCs completed by parents or carers
at baseline. Over two-thirds of the children had at least
one scale and just over half had two or more scales
in the clinical range. Signi cant differences were found
for older children and females who were more likely to
have two or more scales in the clinical range.
Both the TSCC and TSCYC data was compared with HCA
data in terms of experience of abuse and neglect and
presentation of dif culties according to the referrers.
Clearer patterns emerged in this data compared to
the analysis regarding SDQs and HCA data, however
it is still preliminary and further exploration is required
Frederico, Jackson, & Black (2010) “More than Words” – Take Two Third Evaluation Report, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia