Research Project Summary
The FA collaborates with them to develop family-led goal plans and implement creative solutions for meeting the needs outlined in the plans (many of which focus on social determinants of health (SDOH) – e.g. housing, employment, and transportation), and supports them in navigating the complicated and often frustrating systems needed to access resources.</p>
Through a previous research collaboration from this team funded by a foundation, a quantitative analysis of FSN’s Family Assessment Tool found improvements in SDOH-relevant areas post-enrollment in the FSN program. This quantitative data is important, given that FSN/UAG serves families in some of NJ’s most rural counties where service delivery is a challenge and health status continues to rank among the poorest in the State. Further qualitative research would uncover the value of this informal, family-based support system and highlight barriers and solutions with important implications for research, policy, and practice around addressing SDOH for hard to reach populations in areas of tremendous need. We propose to therefore conduct interviews and focus groups with low-income families served by UAG who live in Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties, those families’ Family Advocates, and the community partners these families interact with to: (1) better understand the FA impact and (2) more broadly highlight considerations for addressing the comprehensive SDOH for low-income families in those counties.</p>
Research Project Goals
We aim to research the impact of the informal, family-based support system & highlight the findings on addressing SDOHs for hard to reach populations in areas of tremendous need.
Research Project Objectives
This research gets beyond the numbers by outlining the impact of Family Advocates on low-income families and highlighting considerations for addressing SDOH in that population. Qualitative research helps us understand social interactions and the ways individuals make sense of their world, while highlighting inequalities. The notes and transcripts from the interviews and focus groups are the data for this project. WRI will analyze them to outline themes from the family, service providers, and Family Advocate perspectives, which will enable WRI to then identify barriers, strengths, and actionable recommendations to improve SDOH service delivery. This data will be shared with SJIPH, policymakers, community partners, and other stakeholders to facilitate the development of community-informed policies, programs, and research that address strategy and service gaps for low-income families in under-resourced areas. First, WRI will produce a user-friendly report that highlights the findings and themes. WRI will also share the qualitative research guides (e.g., interview and focus group questions) and the data analysis (e.g, the codebook and the NVivo database), which would undoubtedly support other SJIPH/researchers interested in studying this issue. Additionally, ensuring all IRB regulations are followed, WRI would de-identify the notes/transcripts and allow researchers access to the data either by request or via a dataset posted on SJIPH/WRI’s website. WRI has engaged in similar activities for a recent project, where we analyzed almost 600 qualitative submissions and the guiding questions and codebook with qualitative data was shared and archived by theme for the NJ State Library.