meeting minutes

GAMBLER’S Assistance PROGRAM

EVALATION COMMITTEE

September 25th, 8:30am – 10:00am

Country Inn & Suites

Lincoln, NE

Present:

Jerry Bauerkemper / Deb Hammond / Katrina Ondracek
Denise Bulling / Eric Hunsberger / Kate Speck
Mark DeKraai / Andrea McAllister / Harlan Vogel
Sherrie Geier / Carmen McLean

1. Updates

  • Carmen will send out document review to evaluation team before next evaluation meeting.
  • HHS to provide MHSIP data to Carmen when available.
  • Helpline data not yet received due to technical problems.

Eric to provide hard copy or summary info to see what kind of data are available.

  • Cost analysis data
  • Will meet with Don Redding to determine what data is available through Magellan.
  • Will explore options to sample from providers (pull files of discharged consumers).
  • Webpage is up and running:

2. Review of Magellan data

  • Discussed the limitations and accuracy of the data.
  • We are not currently able to track what services each consumer received or costs per consumer (we want both!), so we will talk with Don Redding about accessing this info or develop a plan to sample from providers.
  • Because GAP data in Magellan was an “add-on” modeled from substance abuse questions, it is not optimally useful. We will plan to make recommendations for how to makefuture data collection and retrieval more useful and user friendly.

PPC to meet with Don Redding to problem solve data use issues.

3. Discussed outcome criteria

  • Brainstormed howto operationalize improvement: Abstinence, family relationships, community involvement, debt, legal status…
  • Discussed what data are available for collection.
  • Magellan database has some discharge data on legal status, employment status, etc.
  • At pre-treatment, providers obtain consumer eligibility info (either GA 20 questions, DSM-IV criteria, or SOGS), but are not required to do so at post-treatment. Clinical impressions of progress towards goals may be informative.
  • Plan to determine the feasibility of connecting provider data with Magellan data with unique identifiers.
  • We will look at current data and develop criteria for assessing outcomes.
  • Will also develop recommendations about collecting pre/post GAF scores, DSM-IV assessment, financial and legal status, and/or quality of life measures would help document change based on focus group findings.

4. Focus group questions

  • Focus groups will include access issues.
  • Agreed that having providers distribute surveys to clients to supplement focus group data, which they could complete and return confidentially.
  • Providers will be asked to inform consumers of the opportunity to participate
  • Focus groups: providers, consumers, family members, helpline staff.
  • In the provider focus groups, we will ask about what data elements would be helpful for them to know.
  • Agreed to conduct focus groups in October/November and provide preliminary results in December.

5. Upcoming briefing

  • Date is late February
  • Plan to have some evaluation data available for presentation

6. Next Meeting is Monday, October 23rd8:30 – 10:00 at the Public Policy Center 121 South 13th Street, suite 303.