Implementation of the Child Housing Assessment for a Safe Environment

To address the gap between known preventative factors for child home injuries and the uptake of those prevention approaches by high-risk families, the hazards must be systematically and rigorously assessed, and modifications properly implemented and evaluated. Although there are standardized approaches to assess and address particular home health hazards, such as lead paint, asthma, there is no standard tool for injury control. The study team has developed and tested a tool to assess child injury risks in the home (CHASE Tool). The study team has adapted the existing CHASE tool, found in the article by Shields et al 2019, to specify home modifications needed for 15 priority injury hazards that are the focus of this project based on the literature, availability of prevention measures, and the preliminary studies; they include: scalds, falls, fires, crush/cut/pierce injuries, poisonings, and strangulation) however, the time and cost burden to conduct the assessments on a large scale and to implement evidence-based modifications have not been documented, nor is there information available about residents' willingness to accept these modifications. Thus, the investigators propose to combine the child injury prevention expertise of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy faculty with the home modification and community outreach expertise of Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) to demonstrate a new way to improve the safety of children's homes.

The existing CHASE tool, found in the article by Shields et al 2019, has been adapted to specify home modifications needed for 15 priority injury hazards that are the focus of this project based on the literature, availability of prevention measures, and the preliminary studies; they include: scalds, falls, fires, crush/cut/pierce injuries, poisonings, and strangulation.

This project represents the next step in the CHASE project through which the following objectives will be met: Objective 1. Implement injury prevention measures based on safety hazards identified using the CHASE Tool within 300 low-income households (at or below 80% AMI) in Baltimore City or Baltimore County; Objective 2. Determine the costs of the injury prevention measures completed by residents and/or professional providers; Objective 3. Conduct a formative evaluation using mixed methods to 3a. determine feasibility of incorporating injury prevention into residential programs from the perspective of installers and residents, including identifying barriers and facilitators, and 3b. understand the consistency of implementing and maintaining the injury prevention measures across referral sources, by residents and staff.

The Implementation study will be conducted in five phases including the following. Phase 1: Community Engagement. Phase 2: The Enrollment Phase including an initial home visit and assessment for injury risks, CHASE Family Feedback Form creation and education including guidance about needed modifications. Phase 3: Re-Assessment Phase which includes a second home visit to assess change, perform modifications when needed, and survey to understand barriers and facilitators. Phase 4: Follow-Up to measure sustainability of modifications and obtain feedback on the program. Phase 5: Evaluation and Dissemination of results.

The study will enroll a sample of N=300 homes of low-income families with children < 7 years of age who are referred from two of GHHI's currently active programs, Department of Social Services (DSS) Foster Care Homes Program (FCHP, n=200 homes) and Amerigroup Maryland Asthma Program (AMAP, n=100 homes), which are Medicaid eligible children referred from Amerigroup-Maryland into GHHI's asthma home-visiting program.

In addition to completing the three objectives, a user-friendly CHASE Home Safety Modifications Tool Kit and online training module for utilization by other programs working in homes with children will be created and disseminated, thus expanding the potential impact of the present work and HUD's to other housing service providers and beneficiaries nationally.

Inclusion criteria

• Parent or guardian (or an emancipated minor who meets all other inclusion criteria) whose household is participating in either the GHHI DSS Foster Care Homes Program (FCHP) OR GHHI Amerigroup Maryland Asthma Program (AMAP)
• Households with at least one child under 7 years of age, or foster care families planning to host a child under 7
• The child under 7 years of age lives with the parent or legal guardian most of the time
• Income at or below 80% AMI as defined by US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• A home address in Baltimore City or Baltimore County

Exclusion criteria

• Parent or guardian whose household is participating is not in either the GHHI DSS Foster Care Homes Program (FCHP) OR GHHI Amerigroup Maryland Asthma Program (AMAP)
• Household does not have at least one child under 7 years of age, or foster care families are not planning to host a child under 7
• The child under 7 years of age does not live with the parent or legal guardian most of the time
• Income is not at or below 80% AMI as defined by HUD
• The home address is not in Baltimore City or Baltimore County