Creative Clinical Data Mining: Glimpsing the Engagement of Families with an Integrated Service System
| Date | 01 March 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X1301300105 |
| Published date | 01 March 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
28 Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2013
Creative clinical data mining
Glimpsing the engagement of families with an integrated service system
This article illustrates the potential of clinical data mining (CDM) for
exploring families’ engagement with integrated early intervention
and prevention (EIP) service systems. New approaches to EIP under
the Communities for Children program seek to achieve systemic
change towards more integrated service provision in an area. To
date, program monitoring has focused on contacts by families
with individual services, not necessarily engagement across an
emerging system. As part of an evaluative capacity-building (ECB)
process, practitioners asked the question: What can we learn about
users’ engagement with the service system from existing records of
use? The approach taken drew from CDM methodology. EIP does
not usually involve signicant user database systems as the work
entails community development methodologies and users can
be variously the community, groups, families and individuals. A
partial dataset, from routinely recorded contacts, was available
for one area. The dataset relied on a family number system
created as a membership club for consciousness-raising on child-
friendly communities. The de-identied dataset was mined for
‘connection’ with, and ‘movement’ within, the service system. There
was evidence beyond the intuitive knowing of practitioners that
the contractual obligation to engage families and children with
services across a system was achieved. CDM provided a means to
demonstrate this within a broader evaluative capacity-building
process.
Introduction
Inter-organisational practice, often called ‘collaboration’ or ‘partnership’, is the
cornerstone of new approaches to complex social issues (DoFHCSIA 2012, pp.
11–12). Such methods seek to achieve greater coordination between (and even
integration of) services across multiple providers to improve users’ engagement.
There are strong arguments for eorts to improve the integration of services
as a response to complex problems and vulnerable populations, for example,
Lalayants, Epstein and Adamy (2011) in the case of child protection, and Joubert
and Power (2005) in the case of integrated hospital care. However, Lalayants and
Epstein (2005) highlight that very few studies have systematically evaluated such
collaborative methodologies. Thus, there is no certainty that the implementation
of inter-organisational practice to achieve service process outcomes, such as greater
integration, leads to better outcomes for service users (Dickinson 2010).
Communities for Children (CfC) is one program that mandates inter-
organisational practice in the policy domain of early intervention and prevention
for families with children aged 0–12 years (DoFHCSIA 2013a). Under this program
Wendy Earles
Wendy Earles is an Associate Professor in the
School of Arts and Social Sciences at James
Cook University, Cairns and a Research Fellow
of the Cairns Institute.
Email: <wendy.earles@jcu.edu.au>
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2013, pp. 28–35
REFEREED ARTICLE
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