Current Evaluation and Engaged Research Projects

The Evaluation Group  partners with community, tribal, school, and governmental organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate their programs. Our portfolio of evaluation projects reflects the full range of systems and health factors that contribute to population health outcomes. 

Click here to learn more about Redirecting the River of Substance Use in Wisconsin Interventions in Partnership with UWPHI

Click below to learn more about some of our current projects.

Behavioral Health- Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery

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988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

As of July 16, 2022, anyone in the United States can call or text 988 or use an online chat tool to access the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The purpose of the 988 Cooperative Agreement is to improve state and territory response to 988 contacts originating in the state/territory by: (1) recruiting, hiring and training behavioral health workforce to staff local 988/Lifeline centers to respond, intervene, and provide follow-up to individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis; (2) engaging Lifeline crisis centers to unify 988 response across states/territories; and (3) expanding the crisis center staffing and response structure needed for the successful implementation of 988. UWPHI provides monitoring, quality improvement, and evaluation services around program data in Wisconsin. UWPHI has also created a public-facing 988 data dashboard for Wisconsin, which is updated on a monthly basis.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI), Skalitzky (PI), Manzanares, Hogeterp

Implementation Partners: Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT)

Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) is a SAMHSA funded grant that was awarded to Community Advocates, Inc. MHAT provides training to Milwaukee County residents who are at risk of experiencing or experiencing mental health issues and have been traditionally under-served by the mental health system. The program focuses on training the target population, as well as their personal networks, human service professionals, first responders, and community stakeholders. This program provides trainings to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders, de-escalation techniques, and links to referrals for appropriate services. UWPHI is conducting the evaluation of this program.

Evaluation staff: Linnan

Funder: SAMHSA via Community Adovcates

Project AWARE

The purposes of the Wisconsin AWARE project are to make schools safer, improve school climates, increased capacity to identify warning signs of mental health problems among children and make appropriate referrals to mental health care, and increase capacity of the state and local education agencies to connect children and youth with behavioral health issues with needed services. The UW Population Health Institute’s evaluation of this project allows the communities to accurately track mental health referrals and service delivery, as well as providing technical assistance to the participating communities, Adams-Friendship & Ashland School Districts.

Evaluation Staff: Nuñez (PI), Amos, Taber

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

State Opioid Response (SOR)

The purpose of the SOR grants is to address the opioid overdose crisis by providing resources for increasing access to FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder (MOUD), and for supporting the continuum of prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services for opioid use disorder (OUD) and other concurrent substance use disorders. The SOR program also supports the continuum of care for stimulant misuse and use disorders, including for cocaine and methamphetamine. The SOR program aims to help reduce unmet treatment needs and opioid-related overdose deaths. UWPHI provides training and technical assistance to support program implementation, as well as monitoring and evaluation services around program data for both the SOR 2 and SOR 3 grants.

Evaluation staff: Linnan (PI), Skalitzky, Walsh-Felz, Amos, LaFayette, Hogeterp, Joyner

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Statewide Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP)

Wisconsin’s SCIP plan aims to to address the multifaceted challenges of firearm-related violence and suicides through targeted prevention, response, and research efforts, paving the way for a safer Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI) Evaluation & Engaged Research Group will use the funds to study how the Wisconsin 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can help prevent gun violence, including suicides and homicides. Working with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin 988 Lifeline provider (Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin), the project aims to understand the main drivers of gun violence, assess how effective the 988 Lifeline is as a gun violence intervention, and discover new ways for the 988 Lifeline to intervene with the goal of reducing suicidal and homicidal attempts by firearm. The Wisconsin 988 Lifeline offers free and confidential support 24/7 for anyone going through a behavioral health crisis, which includes talking to a trained counselor via phone call, text messaging, or online chat.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI), Skalitzky, O’Leary, Zeba

Funder: Wisconsin Department of Justice via the National Institute of Justice

Implementation Partners: Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin, The Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Tribal Overdose Prevention (TOP)

The Tribal Overdose Prevention (TOP) project partners with three federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin to create and implement comprehensive substance use prevention and intervention services. The project will include ongoing needs assessments of the Tribal Nations of Wisconsin with regards to substance use and opioid overdose; reducing opioid overdose-related deaths and adverse events among the target population; developing a comprehensive prevention program to address opioid overdose-related deaths and adverse events; and, providing outreach to opioid users who have survived an overdose to connect them with appropriate services and supports. UWPHI provides monitoring, quality improvement, and evaluation services around program data.

Evaluation Staff: Linnan (co-PI), Goodrich (co-PI), LaFayette, Little, Joyner

Implementation Partners: The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa,  Lac Court Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Behavioral Health in Criminal Justice Populations

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Dane County Deferred Prosecution Opioid Diversion Program

The Dane County District Attorney’s Office Deferred Prosecution – Opioid Diversion Program (DPP-O) is a pretrial diversion program that provides individuals with opioid and methamphetamine use disorders with pre- and post-charging diversion from justice system involvement by providing assessment, referrals to treatment, case management, and connection to other needed resources. Enhancing the program through the use of program evaluation support will provide the opportunity for program services and practices to more closely conform to evidence-based standards and practices through fidelity assessment and will allow for the use of data for ongoing program improvement. Funded by the WI Department of Justice Treatment Alternatives and Diversion Program (TAD)from 2022-2026.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI)

Implementation Partners: Dane County District Attorney’s Office

Funder: Wisconsin Department of Justice

Pathways to Recovery (a Madison and Dane County Initiative)

The Madison Police Department received funding to improve public safety and health in Madison and Dane County by diverting individuals suffering from substance use from the criminal justice system through a framework of treatment referral and engagement. The Pathways to Recovery initiative includes proactive naloxone distribution, active outreach with responses to overdose-related incidents, and pre-arrest diversion for eligible drug-related offenses. UWPHI provides technical assistance with program development, evaluation plan development and implementation, the use of evaluation results for program improvement, and summary of evaluation results.

Goodrich J, Taber E. Pathways to Recovery Madison and Dane County Preliminary Evaluation Report. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, April 2022.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI), Taber

Implementation Partners: Madison Police Department, Dane County Department of Human Services, Safe Communities of Madison, and Madison Fire Department

Funder: The Bureau of Justice Assistance and Opioid Settlement Funding via the Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Child & Family Health Promotion Programs

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Fit Families

Fit Families is a child obesity prevention program targeting parents of 2- to 4-year-old children at Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Projects around Wisconsin. The overall project goals include increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, decreasing intake of sweetened beverages and juice, increasing daily physical activity, and decreasing screen time to reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese.  Fit Families is funded by USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education.

Evaluation Staff: Linnan (PI), Joyner, Taber

Funder: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-ED) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Tribal Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention

Tribal Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) is an adolescent pregnancy prevention program implemented in two tribal communities in Wisconsin. UWPHI has been contracted as the evaluators, in partnership with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC). Tribal PREP is a 5-year grant that seeks to decrease adolescent birth and STI rates, improve youth self-efficacy, and promote positive youth development.

Evaluation Staff: Manzanares (PI), Nuñez, Amos

Funder: U.S. Administration for Children and Families via Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council

Evaluation of Wisconsin’s Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP)

This grant supports independent monitoring and evaluation of positive youth development programs administered through Wisconsin’s implementation of the federal PREP program.

Evaluation Staff: Manzanares, Raygor, Alhagri

Funder: U.S. Administration for Children & Families, via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Evaluation of Wisconsin’s Title V State Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) Program

This grant supports independent monitoring and evaluation of positive youth development programs administered through Wisconsin’s implementation of the federal SRAE program.

Evaluation Staff: Manzanares, Raygor, Alhagri

Funder: U.S. Administration for Children & Families, via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Connect Rx (previously Healthy Black Families Dane County and Thrive Dane)

The Dane County Health Council will develop a model of care coordination aimed at reducing disparities in African American birth outcomes by improving how health systems and social services engage with African American families. The initiative will focus on four priorities: implement a universal risk screener; support leadership by Black families; train community health workers and doulas to partner with health system care teams; and coordinate clinical and community referrals and resources. The initiative’s long-term goal is to eliminate racial disparities in infant mortality and low birthweight as well as support overall family well-being.

Evaluation Staff: Lindberg, Zeba

Funder: Wisconsin Partnership Program, Schmidt Futures, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Graduate Research and Education

Sauk Prairie School District Mental Health Promotion

The Sauk Prairie School District is implementing a comprehensive approach that seeks to support families and students as they try to access mental health services in their rural community. The District acts as a hub for student and family access to targeted and diversified support and provides support to providers and educators via professional and personal development. UWPHI provides monitoring, assistance with documentation, quality improvement, and evaluation services around program data and implementation.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI), Pykett

Implementation Partners: The Sauk Prairie School District

Funder: U.S. Department of Education via the Sauk Prairie School District

Stronger Families Milwaukee

The Stronger Families Milwaukee program provides voluntary services to families and children in Milwaukee County who are at risk of child protective services (CPS) intervention. Referrals come from the Department of Milwaukee Child Protection Services if there are no identified safety threats in the home. Engagement Specialists work directly with families to provide case management services to improve parent and child stability and to connect the family to resources that will help prevent re-entry into the child welfare system. The program is administered by a consortium consisting of Community Advocates, Inc., The Parenting Network, and Neu Life.

Evaluation staff: Linnan

Implementing partners: Community Advocates, Inc., The Parenting Network, and Neu Life.

Community Health Promotion

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Isthmus Safety Initiative: A Welcoming and Safe Downtown for All

The UWPHI Evaluation & Engaged Research group support a community-based, crime reduction project with the support of a Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) grant between 2021-2024. The Isthmus Safety Initiative will focus on identifying a community-driven action plan for reducing gun and sexual violence that centers the voices of those most impacted by violent crime in downtown Madison. UWPHI staff will use their expertise in community engagement, action research, and evaluation research to help partners conduct root cause analyses, construct theories of change, select evidence-based interventions, monitor progress, and measure the impacts of community-based efforts on violent crime.

https://publichealthmdc.com/community-initiatives/violence-prevention/violence-prevention-initiatives#isi

Amos, R., Vigna, A., & Goodrich, J. (2022). Isthmus Safety Initiative: Community Engagement Results

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI), Amos

Implementation Partners: City of Madison Community Development Division, Madison Police Department, Public Health Madison Dane County, Downtown Madison, Inc., and Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc.

Funder: The Bureau of Justice Assistance

Evaluation of Wisconsin’s Rape Prevention & Education (RPE) Program

This grant supports independent monitoring and evaluation of sexual violence prevention programs administered through Wisconsin’s implementation of the federal RPE program.

Evaluation Staff: Vigna, Little, Alhagri

Funder: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Policy & Systems Change Evaluation Projects

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Antibiotic Stewardship in Outpatient Settings

Improving antibiotic prescribing in all health care settings is critical to combatting antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The Wisconsin Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) Prevention Program conducts statewide surveillance. To better understand the current state of outpatient antibiotic use in Wisconsin, the DHS HAI Prevention Program partnered with the Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO) to develop a series of outpatient antibiotic use measures. The measures have now been incorporated into data reports via Tableau that are organization-specific, including prescriber-level metrics. UWPHI has been contracted by the Department of Health Services to support evaluation of the outpatient antibiotic stewardship data reports, with a focus on dissemination and implementation evaluation.

Evaluation Staff: Skalitzky (PI)

Implementation Partners: The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) and the Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO)

Funder: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Compassion Resilience Toolkit Fidelity Project

The Compassion Resilience Toolkit is a free resource for schools, parents/caregivers, and health and human professionals that promotes wellness, self-compassion, compassion for others, and compassion resilience. The Toolkit has been disseminated widely to a variety of organizations and individuals. UWPHI is assisting with summarizing data collected to date, building tools for documenting implementation and monitoring fidelity, and evaluating a pilot fidelity measure tool.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI)

Implementation Partners: Rogers Behavioral Health, Wisconsin Department of Instruction, Wisconsin Safe & Healthy Schools Center

Funder: Rogers Behavioral Health & the Wisconsin Department of Instruction

Community Academic Aging Research Network

The Community Academic Aging Research Network (CAARN) is expanding strategies to support authentic partnership between community and academic partners engaged in collaborative research.  CAARN is interested in building partners’ capacity to use key principles and practices that are known to support successful community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships. UWPHI is partnering with CAARN in the evaluation of these efforts. Data from multiple stakeholders and multiple methods will be combined to understand the extent to which CBPR principles are working in the CAARN network, among its staff and leadership, and among affiliated research teams.

Evaluation Staff: Lindberg

Funder: National Institutes of Health

Recovery Residences that Work: Building Quality through Accreditation Standards Statewide

This project addresses the persistent, high levels of substance use disorders in Wisconsin by developing accreditation and quality improvement systems to promote practice standards for recovery residences, attending to the wide variation and adverse outcomes in current practice. Operator education and quality improvement metrics support residents, improving health and recovery outcomes.

Evaluation staff:  Feder, Markeland

Partners:  WisHope and Katinka Hooyer, MCW

Funder:  Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment

South Madison Reinvestment Strategy for Equity

The City of Madison has contracted with UW PHI to assess the impacts of using tax increment financing to implement the community-informed South Madison 2021 Neighborhood Plan over the course of the next 10 years. Using a community-engaged action research approach, UW PHI will be monitoring for impacts on gentrification, BIPOC wealth building, and BIPOC entrepreneurship.

2022 SoMa RiSe Report

South Madison RiSE 2022 Technical Appendices

Evaluation Staff: Vigna, O’Leary, Feder, Zeba

Funder: City of Madison