Final Report: Child and Caregiver Outcomes Using Linked Data

Child maltreatment and involvement in child welfare systems are well-known adverse childhood experiences associated with poor health outcomes during childhood and later in life. Very little is known about the health needs of, and services used by families involved in child welfare systems, particularly those services funded by Medicaid. The lack of research is in large part due to the limited availability of large-scale datasets on Medicaid use of these families. This final report outlines the contributions of this project that include several innovative products:

• Multistate datasets, deidentified and archived as restricted access files with a data center or repository that makes the data available to researchers to conduct secondary analyses.
• Road map for other states providing lessons learned on data sharing and data linkages between state Medicaid and child welfare agencies, including sample data agreements and advice about data structure, analysis, and overcoming organizational barriers.
• Analysis of outcomes in select states on patients receiving treatment under Medicaid and how receipt of (and adherence to) treatment relates to outcomes for their children involved in the child welfare system, as well as the possible effects of child welfare services on treatment success.