Transition to Adulthood Program Information System (TAPIS)

Transition to Adulthood Program Information System (TAPIS)

Hewitt B. "Rusty" Clark, Arun Karpur, Nicole Deschênes, and Jordan T. Knab

Transition to Independence Process (TIP): TIP System Development and Evaluation Team at

The National Center on Youth Transition Louis de La Parte Florida Mental Health Institute Department of Child & Family Studies University of South Florida Tampa, FL

TAPIS Roots

The TAPIS is a transition assessment system that is being developed based on our experience with two previous systems developed by the TIP System Development and Evaluation Team: The Community Adjustment Rating of Transition Success (CARTS) Progress Tracker (Hewitt B. Clark, Kristin Knapp, & William Corbett, 2001) and the Transition to Adulthood Assessment Protocol (TAAP) (Maryann Davis, Nicole Deschênes, Peter Gamache, & Hewitt B. Clark, 2004). TAPIS Copyright © by H.B. Clark, 2005.

Transition to Independence Process (TIP): TIP System Development and Evaluation Team

Transition to Adulthood Program Information System (TAPIS)

TAPIS Administration Manual

Transition to Adulthood Program Information System (TAPIS) is an integrated internet-based system for: (a) collecting data to assess and track a young person's progress and/or difficulty as they prepare and transition into adult roles, and (b) providing program effectiveness data for continuing quality improvement of transition programs.

Purpose

The purpose of TAPIS is to serve the information needs for community-based transition programs serving youth and young adults with emotional and/behavioral disturbances (EBD). TAPIS will enable program personnel in the assessment of young person's indicators of progress and/or difficulty transition over time, and provide the information on program effectiveness and young person outcomes for continuing program quality improvement to the program stakeholders.

Description of the Three Components of TAPIS

A. Progress Tracker on Progression to Adulthood Roles (Progress Tracker)

The purpose of the Progress Tracker is to assess and track a young person's progress and/or difficulty in transition to greater self-sufficiency across the following eleven transition domains.

• Employment
• Education
• Living Situation
• Community Life Functioning
  • Interpersonal Relations: Family, Friends, and Mentors
  • Daily Living and Leisure Time Activities
  • Community Involvement and Social Responsibilities
  • Communication Skills
  • Self-determination
  • Emotional and Behavioral Well-being
  • Physical Health
  • Parenting
  
  

  Each transition domain consists of (a) objective information on the indicators of young person's progress and/or difficulty, and (b) assessment of overall levels of functioning within each domain.

  
  Sources of Information Used in Completing the Progress Tracker
  The Progress Tracker is being designed and tested to assist transition facilitators, parents/caregivers, other personnel, and program managers working in transition to adulthood programs in tracking young person's progress and services received.

  The Progress Tracker is:

  • Completed by the transition facilitator or other personnel most knowledgeable of the young person's recent experiences or personnel working with the young person on transition-based issues (transition personnel). The person assigned to complete the Progress Tracker should draw on all of the sources of information available to him/her, including, but not limited to: the youth, parents, foster parents, various agency records, school reports, and other informal and formal key players in the life of the young person. Thus, the transition facilitator is providing his/her best estimate of the experiences and circumstances of the young person.
  • Filled out at the end of each quarter. We also recommend that an initial Progress Tracker be completed at the time of intake to provide a baseline of young person status and experiences for the 30 days prior to coming into services.
  • A carry-over system where data entered in the previous quarter will be carried over to the current quarter. Therefore the transition personnel will need to update the records without re-entering data on variables that have not changed since the past assessment. The intention is to minimize data entry time and increase the efficiency of data collecting system.
  • Helpful to provide data on progress or difficulties over time as the transition facilitator interacts with the young person, family members, and other informal and formal key players, celebrating progress and problem solving challenges.
  • Useful in planning initial and revised Transition Supports Plans with the young person and his/her informal and formal key players.
  • Used by the program managers and the Community Transition System Steering Committee as a continuing quality improvement method for their transition program and community system. For example, the percentage of young people making progress from between program entry to program exit to follow-along status.
    

  
  B. Goal Achiever

  
  The Goal Achiever is a sub-system that is developed to help the young person and transition personnel, to develop and track progress goals for all of the 11 transition domains. This also allows the transition personnel to plan tasks and strategies to meet the goal, set time frame for activities, and update the young person's progress as and when the information is available. The Goal Achiever can be updated on a day-to-day basis. The Goal Achiever can also be used as an electronic Individualized Transition Planning (ITP) tool for youth and young adults with disabilities in Foster Care, Juvenile Justice, and School-based transition programs. This sub-system fosters a goal-oriented approach in transition planning for youth and young adults creating an outcome focus. A proto-type version of this internet-based sub-system is already available for pilot testing. This system consists of several web-pages for data entry, and a summarized report is generated for each young person online. For more information about Goal Achiever please contact Dr. Clark.
  

  C. Services Received and Helpfulness Survey
  

  The Services Received and Helpfulness Survey lays out the matrix of services received by the young person from transition program. This also allows the young person to rate the helpfulness of services received and list any additional services needed. This is an optional module build within the TAPIS system.
  

  D. Young Person's Perspective on Progress and Helpfulness of Services (Helpfulness - Satisfaction Survey)
  

  The Helpfulness - Satisfaction Survey is another component that will collect information from the young person's perspective on issues of progress in various domains and their levels of satisfaction on the helpfulness of services received through the transition programs. A second version of this instrument is planned for securing similar information from a third party, such as a parent, foster parent, boyfriend/girlfriend, or spouse. This instrument is being designed to be administered every 6 months. The following set of questions on helpfulness and satisfaction will be answered through this instrument:

  • How satisfied are you with the progress in each domain?
  • How confident are you that you can make progress in each of the domains?
  • How satisfied are you that you are getting the help you need to achieve in this domain?
  • Do you have additional needs for which you require help?
    
  
  

  System Integration and Reporting Format
  

  The two sub-systems, Progress Tracker and Goal Achiever, will be connected with one another. Each new goal entered in the Goal Achiever will be assigned to one of the domains, which will then be reflected within the "Levels of Functioning" section of the Progress Tracker. From that section of the domain assessment, an active action-button will provide direct access to any of the individualized goals the young person might have related to that domain in the Goal Achiever. Thus, by pressing the active action-button, the transition personnel will be able to navigate the Goal Achiever to get qualitative information about the young person's progress in each domain and make a decision about their assessment of levels of functioning of the young person in a given transition domain. Additionally a direct level of access to Goal Achiever will also be provided for transition personnel to periodically update the records based upon their learning of young person's progress on various goals established under each transition domain.

  The reports that would be outputted will consist of: (a) Graphic Display Output and (b) Text-based Summary. The Graphic Display Output is a graphic layout of the levels of functioning of the young person for each of the 11 transition domains. It is intended to provide: (a) a global picture of the progress of the young person, and (b) an opportunity for celebrating the young person's success with the young person and his/her transition team (may consist of formal and/or informal key players). This would also set up an opportunity for a dialogue among the young person and his/her transition team for planning supports leading to transition success. The Text-based Summary of the data will be an output to responses for the items within the database. Customization for printing the most current month's responses to items or cumulative months will be built into the system. Additionally, as the data base gets populated a spreadsheet of information on indicators of progress and/or difficulty in transition to adult roles will be generated. This data spreadsheet can be utilized to conduct aggregated analysis for effectiveness studies for program and/or intervention impact assessment. Thus the TAPIS will function as a tool for monitoring the indicators of progress and/or difficulty for young person's transition to adult roles, and as an instrument that provides effectiveness data for continuing quality improvement.
  

  System Description
  

  The TAPIS will be a web-enabled software system with a user-friendly graphical interface. Access to this system will be password protected and all the passwords will be encrypted maintaining data security. Administrative level access will be provided to data administrators who will be able to access and edit the data coming from all the transition personnel. The transition personnel will have a capability to view and edit records of young persons with whom they are working. The paper-based TAPIS instrument is also available for sites to develop their stand-alone software application system that enables data to be stored on their local hard disk. Responsibility of establishing appropriate data sharing agreements will rest upon the end users of this system. CD-ROMs consisting of software and instruction for installation including trouble-shooting guide will be produced for end users.

  
  Application of Software at Sites
  

  Transition sites choosing to use this system will be issued either a CD-ROM based version or an Internet link with secured access (There may be a small user fee for required for the maintenance of the system). The TAPIS system is being developed with specific variables of importance when serving young people with emotional/behavioral difficulties (e.g., emotional well-being, substance use). The system can be modified for transition programs serving youth and young adults with other disability classifications (e.g., physical disabilities, sensory-motor disabilities).