Brief Assessment & Screening to Inform, Connect and Support (BASICS)

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Purpose of the BASICS
The Brief Assessment and Screening to Inform, Connect, and Support will be conducted during a first or second conversation with a family that has been screened in for OhioKAN services based on eligibility criteria. The goals of BASICS are to:

  1. Collect baseline information about family needs and financial resources.
  2. Determine whether family’s needs are imminent and/or complex.
  3. Identify which referrals to provide immediately.
  4. Identify which domains to conduct additional assessments.

How the BASICS was Developed
None of the research-validated assessments reviewed as part of the literature review met the unique goals of the OhioKAN brief assessment. The OhioKAN Design Team, which includes stakeholders from child welfare, aging, formal and informal kinship, adoption and post-adoption, implementation, and evaluation, developed a draft brief assessment specifically designed for OhioKAN needs based on:

  • Current kinship and adoption navigator program practices in Ohio,
  • Domains commonly included in research-validated measures, and
  • Federal and state legislation guiding kinship and adoption navigator services.

Nine core “domains” of potential need were identified by comparing and combining these perspectives. Each of the domains includes examples of specific services or supports that are relevant. Through the conversation with a family, the OhioKAN staff will assess the level of need based upon the family’s expressed urgency and/or complexity of need. This does not denote the frequency of a particular need, but the severity of the need. Because this is a newly developed measure, the evaluation team will test reliability and validity to ensure that it has strong measurement properties and can be used for research/evaluation purposes, as required by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.

Using BASICS in Practice
To administer BASICS, the OhioKAN staff will talk with an adoptive parent or kinship caregiver about their family and the reasons they reached out to OhioKAN. After informal conversation and rapport building, Navigators will tell families that OhioKAN can support kinship and adoptive families in a number of ways, depending on what the family needs. The Navigator will ask about the following…

BASICS Items
“Kinship and adoptive families sometimes face special circumstances that can make parenting even more challenging. I am going to list a few different areas, and I would like you to tell me whether this area is….

  • 0 = Not challenging for my family; no additional support needed
  • 1 = Somewhat challenging for my family; additional support could be helpful for us
  • 2 = Very challenging for my family; we need support right away”

 

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Does your family already have any of these resources in place? (Select options: Yes/No/Not eligible/Not Answered)

  • Adoption Assistance (AA)
  • Area Agency on Aging
  • Free/reduced school meals
  • Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)
  • Kinship Caregiver Program (KCP)
  • Kinship Permanency Incentive Program (KPIP)
  • Medicaid
  • Ohio Works First Child Benefits (OWF)
  • Other medical insurance
  • Post Adoption Special Services Subsidy (PASSS) Program
  • Social Security death benefits
  • Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
  • State Adoption Maintenance Subsidy (SAMS)
  • Subsidized child care
  • Subsidized housing
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
  • Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
  • Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

Prior involvement with Kinship and Post-Adoptive services?
Yes/No

Name of Program/Agency
[text field]

Were urgent and/or complex needs identified?
Yes, complex
Yes, urgent
Yes, both urgent and complex
No, neither urgent nor complex