week 3 discussion program

Narrative Explanation (Tides Family Services Logic Model)

Barbara Maclure

Crashmat

11/2/2025

Assumptions made

There were several assumptions because there is little publicly available evaluation information of Tides Family Services (TFS). The assumption is that the agency regularly administers the Patient Health QuestionnaireAdolescent (PHQ-A) at intake, six weeks, and discharge to measure depressive symptoms in accordance with usual practice in monitoring adolescent mental health. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) sessions and family-based interventions are assumed to be the core of the program considering that the approaches are widely implemented in community-based youth treatment programs. Reach and output targets were estimated by using the daily caseload of about 500 youth as provided in the annual report of the agency. Also, the de-identified data collection and ethical protection were assumed to be in accordance with the health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA) to maintain the confidentiality of the participants (Fink, 2024).

Alignment with the PHQ-A measure

The model is directly aligned with PHQ-A, a teenage version of PHQ-9 both of which are proven to be effective in monitoring the severity of depression. PHQ-A allows quantitative short-, medium- and long-term results depending on the variations in the symptom scores. Early involvement and symptom change are observed in the short-term goals (e.g., ≥20% decrease in PHQ-A scores). The medium-term results, i.e., the attainment of remission (PHQ-A <5) and the decrease in the number of crises calls, serve as significant recovery indicators. Functional recovery, such as long-term remission, school dropout, and less justice, are long-term outcomes. In this way, the outcomes are empirically consistent and clear in program evaluation and logically related to PHQ-A thresholds.

Information missing

The TFS website does not provide a lot of operational and evaluation statistics, such as the frequency of assessments, CBT fidelity tests, staff-to-client ratio, and subgroup analysis by age, gender, or ethnic origin. Disaggregated, longitudinal data would be available and can be used to enhance validity and examine the effectiveness of interventions in different populations. Further collaboration with TFS to receive anonymized data extracts and fidelity reports would contribute to more accurate data and allow more reliable outcome evaluation.

References

Fink, A. (2024). Program Evaluation: A Primer for Effectiveness, Quality, and Value (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032367873

Tides Family Services. (2025, September 17). Home. https://www.tidesfs.org/