kter center: research liaisons in vocational rehabilitation agencies: a kter center study moderator: joann starks presenter: kathlee

KTER Center:
Research Liaisons in Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies: A KTER Center
Study
Moderator: Joann Starks
Presenter: Kathleen Murphy
Spring 2018
Joann Starks: Welcome everyone! I am your host, Joann Starks from the
American Institute for Research, or AIR and THIS is the first webcast
in our 4-part series introducing you to the KTER Center’s research
activities, resources and training opportunities. This video focuses
on how VR supervisors and managers can get involved in current
research efforts.
We’ll share more details on that invitation in a moment. But first
before we begin we’d like to recognize that this four-part webcast
series is offered through the Center on Knowledge Translation for
Employment Research, or KTER, and funded by the National Institute on
Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, or
NIDILRR. We also want you to know that we have information that
accompanies today's webcast available on our website—including a
PowerPoint file and a text description of the training material.
Please remember that these materials are copyrighted, and that they
are provided to you for education and training purposes only.
Today we are joined by my colleague Kathleen Murphy from AIR. Welcome
Kathleen, we’re glad you’re here.
Kathleen Murphy: Sure Joan, I’m glad to be here today too.
Joann Starks: Ok, let me tell our viewers about you Kathleen. I
learned from your bio that you have been involved for over two decades
on a variety of mixed methods, applied research projects, and you
taught at several universities, including the University of Notre Dame
and Baylor University. Since 2006, Kathleen has focused on knowledge
translation in the disability research field and she leads the KTER
Center.
Kathleen, thanks for taking time to talk today. To get us going, can
you tell us what the point of this study is so we can better
understand why VR leaders should encourage their staff to participate?
Kathleen Murphy: Sure. So, I want to begin first by saying that the
KTER Center is grateful to the Council of State Administrators of
Vocational Rehabilitation, or CSAVR as most of us know it, especially
John Connelly and Kathy West-Evans, who helped us to develop this
series and related work. I also want to recognize that there are many
VR reps, consumers, and others involved in providing training and
technical assistance to VR agencies with whom we work closely, and to
thank them for their ongoing support and collaborations.
As you said in your introduction, I work in the area of knowledge
translation, or KT. It is all about focusing on the impact that any
research project can have on improving people’s lives. At the KTER
Center we live and breathe KT because research funded by NIDILRR can
be used to help people with disabilities find and keep their jobs.
This is in keeping also with how we try make research relevant at AIR.
There are 80 VR agencies across all US states and territories, they
focus on employment for people with disabilities. So, it made sense to
us as a KTER Center and employment research center, to study how the
people who do the most work to make that happen—the VR agency
staff—how they use research. KTER’s goal is to make sure that VR not
only gets the research, but also understands how to use that research
to improve employment outcomes for their clients.
Joann Starks: So that makes sense and seems like a very important
study. Can you talk next about how that study, and others like it, are
part of your overall knowledge translation or “KT” strategy?
Kathleen Murphy: Sure, so the kind of questions we are asking in this
VR study are the same types of questions that are asked all over the
world by researchers who work in the field of KT science: Things like,
how can we best help people to be truly aware of, understand and
actually use the latest research? Or another kind of question that is
typical of KT science would be, what strategies work best to let them
know about research, understand what it’s all about, and be motivated
to use it when making important decisions? One answer that has come
out of the KT science field is this idea of knowledge brokering, it’s
an approach that puts people in the role of acting as research
liaisons, they bridge the worlds of research and practice
Joann Starks: What do you mean by calling someone a ‘research liaison?
Kathleen Murphy: Basically, a research liaison is someone who has
learned about research related to a particular topic, or maybe a set
of topics. This person has an active relationship with both
researchers and practitioners in a particular field, in our case it’s
vocational rehabilitation or VR. In our study, the research liaisons
link the disability researcher and the VR staff by helping to find
research, understand how to use it, and well then, actually apply it
in practice. So, let me share an example from work the KTER Center did
in its previous funding cycle. We did a survey that included 535 VR
counselors across 6 states. In that study, we learned something we
thought was really important – that VR counselors are most motivated
to use research if they perceive that their supervisors or managers
thought that was important.
Joann Starks: Aha! So that’s why you are inviting VR supervisors and
managers to become research liaisons…
Kathleen Murphy: Well exactly – We want to extend the offer to VR
supervisors and managers to take our free research liaison training,
so that they can learn how best to help us bridge the research world
with their staff. We do think this will really help all of us to
better help those in need of our help –people with disabilities who
have unmet employment needs.
Joann Starks: Well can you tell us a little bit more about the
trainings?
Kathleen Murphy: Overall, the training series is designed to help
managers act in this role but there are two separate topical tracks.
One training track will focus on research on the employment of
transition-aged youth, especially as related to the pre-Employment
Training Services, or PreEPT, outlined in the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act often called WIOA. The second track will be held on
the topic of employing adults with autism, especially in building the
communication skills of adults with autism.
Joann Starks: Can you tell us, why did you select those two topics in
particular?
Kathleen Murphy: When we designed this project back in Spring of 2015,
the new legislation at that time, WIOA was brand-new. We knew that VR
agencies would have an interest in the topic of transition-aged youth
since that law set a new requirement that VR agencies must set-aside
15% of their budget to serve this population. Also, in our role to
promote the use of existing research findings, we took inventory of
NIDILRR-funded projects, we found that there were several research
projects working in that transition area. Similarly, looking to see
what is already NIDILRR funded, our team and other NIDILRR-funded
researchers had identified research-based ways to support adults with
autism in the workplace. So those findings are available and are
useful to VR agency staff.
Joann Starks: That sounds like a great training series, and a really
interesting study. But given that people are so busy today, are you
offering any incentives for our viewers to participate in either or
both of these studies?
Kathleen Murphy: Absolutely! First, staff supervisors and managers who
participate in the research liaison trainings will be offered 5 CRC
credit hours.
We also hope that they and their staff will participate in our survey.
Each person who completes the survey about using research gets a $20
gift card each time they do it, we run it twice, once at the beginning
before the training and then when they’re done with the training which
is going to be around 6 months after. We have a control group, those
are people that aren’t involved in the research liaison training but
we will be asking them to do these two surveys.
In addition to that, there are also other additional benefits for VR
supervisors and managers, depending on whether or not they get
assigned to the training intervention group or the control group. The
ones who are in the control group are going to get a voucher that
allows them to participate in a class provided by the Commission on
Rehabilitation Counselor Certification, called “Wellness and
Self-care” and it does qualify as an ethics course. So that’s how the
control group members will get their 5 CRC credit hours.
So, when you put all of that together, all VR supervisors and managers
involved in this study will earn or have the opportunity to earn 5 CRC
credit hours, and they and their staff are all offered two $20 gift
cards.
Joann Starks: Well those are some pretty good incentives!
Kathleen Murphy: We thought so!
Joann Starks: I just realized we haven’t talked about state VR agency
directors. How do these efforts support them and help them to achieve
their program outcome goals?
Kathleen Murphy: Well at that level, the directors of state VR
agencies that have staff participating will be offered a state-level
report, assuming there are enough responses from their staff to allow
us to present the data anonymously. Also, one of the demographic
questions collects data on whether respondents have their CRC, so we
will offer to break out study outcomes to compare those who have their
CRC and those who don’t. And we will also work with state directors to
make sure they have whatever resources they may need to make sharing
the caseload data feasible.
Joann Starks: Ok, are there any other benefits to this study?
Kathleen Murphy: I’d like to think that we all benefit by working
together. The whole premise of knowledge translation is that using
research improves practice. Ultimately, we want to learn how best can
we support VR staff to help their clients.
Joann Starks: Sounds good. Can you explain a little bit more about who
is eligible to sign up for this training?
Kathleen Murphy: Sure thing. As I mentioned, we are targeting VR staff
who are supervisors or managers, we recognize the title may vary from
state to state. We are including VR supervisors and managers who
supervise at least 4 VR counselors.
Joann Starks: What do you expect these people to do?
Kathleen Murphy: Well, we want them to learn a lot and let us learn
from them over the course of about 6 months.
The first step is to get in touch with us and sign up for the study
and let us know which topic interests them most. After we get 40
people signed up for each topic, then we’ll do the random assignment
20 people will get the training 20 people go into the control group.
We’ll do some control of that sorting to make sure that if more than
one VR supervisor signs up from the same office they’ll get in the
same type of group. So as part of that signing up, they’ll take the
baseline survey I mentioned, it lets us know if and how they’re
currently encouraging the use of research on the job. We’ll then ask
that all the managers and supervisors who sign up will help us to
include their staff as respondents to that survey too. So that way,
that’s the only way we’ll know, if having a manager who is a research
liaison affects the use of research among their staff.
Joann Starks: Ok, so what will happen next?
Kathleen Murphy: After that, people who are assigned to the training
will be given information about how to log on to the training at their
individual convenience. It’s an online platform available 24/7 and
there are two online modules that everyone in the training groups will
take. The first training’s short and it focuses on how to communicate
about research in a way that people can easily understand it and how
to apply it to their work. The second training builds off the first
training, by providing actual research that VR supervisors can use to
communicate with their staff about how to apply and use it to improve
employment outcomes for their clients. So, each of these models has a
short pre- and post-test just so we can see, are people learning in
the immediate aftermath of taking these courses.
Joann Starks: I think this sounds like a great effort all-around. But
I do wonder about sustainability and future knowledge sharing. Has the
KTER Center thought about trying to help sustain and expand the study
participants’ knowledge?
Kathleen Murphy: Yes! Thanks for asking – after the formal training is
done, the part we’re really excited about begins. We are on-call after
those trainings at any time to help out, but KTER staff will check-in
monthly with all the study participants to make sure we don’t lose
touch of people, find out, you know have a sense of how things are
going. Because we want at the end of the study to know if this is a
good model for VR agencies in general, so to be able to find out about
whether this approach is helpful and making sense to people involved.
Maybe VR counselors are coming in with questions for their supervisors
about new issues related to their clients. Our staff will work to
support the study participants in addressing those concerns using the
best research available.
That might look like doing a quick search of the literature to find an
answer or putting the participant in touch with one of the members of
our advisory groups, who are experts in these research areas or they
are VR reps or some of them are consumers themselves.
Joann Starks: Ok, so who are these other people KTER can put VR
supervisors and managers in touch with?
Kathleen Murphy: For the autism training, the advisors:
•Frank McCamant, who has experience with the Texas Council on Autism
and PDD
•Carol Schall, who’s Co-Director of the Virginia Commonwealth
University Autism Center for Excellence and Director of the Virginia
Autism Resource Center
•We also have on-hand Stephen Shore. He’s been a leader in several
consumer organizations. He is president emeritus of the Asperger’s
Association of New England. He’s a current board member of Autism
Speaks, the Autism Society, the Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning
Autism Association, and the US Autism and Asperger Association.
And finally, rounding out our autism group is
•Dr. James Williams, a certified CRC who’s also done research on
autism and VR.
That’s the autism group.
Our transition advisors include:
•Dr. Teresa Grossi, who’s on the Advisory board for the National
Postsecondary Outcomes Center. She’s also an external evaluator for
the National Secondary Transition and Technical Assistance Center.
•Dr. Marsha Ellison, is the Associate Director for Knowledge
Translation for Transitions Research and Training Center, which is a
NIDILRR funded project.
•Our advisors also include those involved in VR: Ms. Sandra Miller is
Transition Coordinator for Delaware VR, and Ms. Rachel Anderson joins
us from the Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center, which
most of you know as WINTAC.
Joann Starks: Ok, what’s going to happen after that 6-month period of
monthly check-ins?
Kathleen Murphy: After the 6th monthly check-in, we’ll ask everyone
who took that first survey about how and if you use research to do it
again to see if anything changed.
We’ll also be working with agency directors from the states who have
participants involved in the study and ask them to share with us
caseload data from two points in time: one from the quarter before we
start the training, and another one 12 months later. We’ll analyze
those data to see if consumers whose counselors were managed by the
research liaisons experienced better employment outcomes.
Joann Starks: And what will happen to the training resources once the
study is over?
Kathleen Murphy: Well we are NIDILRR funded so we will make the adults
with autism and transition-aged youth resources available to the
public, free-of-charge. These resources will include the training as
well as the research that VR agency staff found useful.
Joann Starks: Ok, I guess I guess the big question is, how can someone
who’s interested learn more about the study or how can they sign up to
participate?
Kathleen Murphy: If you want to go directly to our form you can log on
to https://tinyurl.com/KTERstudy That’s
https://t-i-n-y-u-r-l-dot-com-forward slash K-T-E-R-s-t-u-d-y. You got
that? If that’s too complicated, just email use at [email protected] and
we’ll provide you with more information.
Joann Starks: Thank you Kathleen for taking the time to talk about
this study. For more information, please visit the KTER website at
kter.org.
Thanks so much to our listeners! After listening to all the webcasts
in this series, please fill out an evaluation. We’ll send the link to
everyone who registers.
I'd also like to join Kathleen in thanking the National Institute on
Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, NIDILRR,
for providing funding for this webcast.
On that final note, I will conclude the webcast. We look forward to
your participation in our next event. Thank you.

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