Are youth mentoring programs good value-for-money? An evaluation of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Melbourne Program.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Moodie ML
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2640473 | biostudies-other | 2009
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Are youth mentoring programs good value-for-money? An evaluation of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Melbourne Program.
Moodie Marjory L ML Fisher Jane J
BMC public health 20090130
<h4>Background</h4>The Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) program matches vulnerable young people with a trained, supervised adult volunteer as mentor. The young people are typically seriously disadvantaged, with multiple psychosocial problems.<h4>Methods</h4>Threshold analysis was undertaken to determine whether investment in the program was a worthwhile use of limited public funds. The potential cost savings were based on US estimates of life-time costs associated with high-risk youth who drop ou ...[more]
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Project description:BackgroundIndigenous youth worldwide continue to experience disproportional rates of poorer mental health and well-being compared to non-Indigenous youth. Mentoring has been known to establish favorable outcomes in many areas of health but is still in its early phases of research within Indigenous contexts. This paper explores the barriers and facilitators of Indigenous youth mentoring programs to improve mental health outcomes and provides evidence for governments' response to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.MethodsA systematic search for published studies was conducted on PubMed, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, and grey literature through Trove, OpenGrey, Indigenous HealthInfoNet, and Informit Indigenous Collection. All papers included in the search were peer-reviewed and published from 2007 to 2021. The Joanna Briggs Institute approaches to critical appraisal, data extraction, data synthesis, and confidence of findings were used.ResultsA total of eight papers describing six mentoring programs were included in this review; six papers were from Canada, and two originated from Australia. Studies included mentor perspectives (n = 4) (incorporating views of parents, carers, Aboriginal assistant teachers, Indigenous program facilitators, young adult health leaders, and community Elders), mentee perspectives (n = 1), and both mentor and mentee perspectives (n = 3). Programs were conducted nationally (n = 3) or within specific local Indigenous communities (n = 3) with varying mentor styles and program focus. Five synthesized findings were identified from the data extraction process, each consisting of four categories. These synthesized findings were: establishing cultural relevancy, facilitating environments, building relationships, facilitating community engagement, and leadership responsibilities, which were discussed in the context of extant mentoring theoretical frameworks.ConclusionMentoring is an appropriate strategy for improving general well-being. However, more research is needed to explore program sustainability and maintaining outcomes in the long term.
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Children and youth with disabilities experience many challenges in their development, including higher risk of poor self-esteem, fewer friendships, and social isolation. Electronic mentoring is a potentially viable approach for youth with disabilities to access social and peer support within a format that reduces physical barriers to accessing mentors. OBJECTIVE:Our objective was to synthesize and review the literature on the impact of electronic mentoring for children and youth with disabilities. METHODS:We conducted a systematic review, completing comprehensive searches of 7 databases from 1993 to May 2018. We selected articles for inclusion that were peer-reviewed publications, had a sample of children or youth with disabilities (≤25 years of age), and had empirical findings with at least one outcome focusing on the impact of electronic mentoring. Two reviewers independently applied the inclusion criteria, extracted the data, and rated the study quality before discussing the findings. RESULTS:In the 25 studies meeting our inclusion criteria, 897 participants (aged 12-26, mean 17.4 years) were represented across 6 countries. Although the outcomes varied across the studies, of 11 studies testing significance, 9 (81%) reported a significant improvement in at least one of the following: career decision making, self-determination, self-advocacy, self-confidence, self-management, social skills, attitude toward disability, and coping with daily life. The electronic mentoring interventions varied in their delivery format and involved 1 or more of the following: interactive websites, virtual environment, email, mobile apps, Skype video calls, and phone calls. A total of 13 studies involved one-to-one mentoring, 6 had group-based mentoring, and 6 had a combination of both. CONCLUSIONS:The evidence in this review suggests it is possible that electronic mentoring is effective for children and youth with disabilities. More rigorously designed studies are needed to understand the impact and effective components of electronic mentoring interventions.
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Project description:BackgroundSimilar to many developed countries, vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) is provided only to girls in New Zealand and coverage is relatively low (47% in school-aged girls for dose 3). Some jurisdictions have already extended HPV vaccination to school-aged boys. Thus, exploration of the cost-utility of adding boys' vaccination is relevant. We modeled the incremental health gain and costs for extending the current girls-only program to boys, intensifying the current girls-only program to achieve 73% coverage, and extension of the intensive program to boys.MethodsA Markov macro-simulation model, which accounted for herd immunity, was developed for an annual cohort of 12-year-olds in 2011 and included the future health states of: cervical cancer, pre-cancer (CIN I to III), genital warts, and three other HPV-related cancers. In each state, health sector costs, including additional health costs from extra life, and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were accumulated. The model included New Zealand data on cancer incidence and survival, and other cause mortality (all by sex, age, ethnicity and deprivation).ResultsAt an assumed local willingness-to-pay threshold of US$29,600, vaccination of 12-year-old boys to achieve the current coverage for girls would not be cost-effective, at US$61,400/QALY gained (95% UI $29,700 to $112,000; OECD purchasing power parities) compared to the current girls-only program, with an assumed vaccine cost of US$59 (NZ$113). This was dominated though by the intensified girls-only program; US$17,400/QALY gained (95% UI: dominant to $46,100). Adding boys to this intensified program was also not cost-effective; US$128,000/QALY gained, 95% UI: $61,900 to $247,000).Vaccination of boys was not found to be cost-effective, even for additional scenarios with very low vaccine or program administration costs - only when combined vaccine and administration costs were NZ$125 or lower per dose was vaccination of boys cost-effective.ConclusionsThese results suggest that adding boys to the girls-only HPV vaccination program in New Zealand is highly unlikely to be cost-effective. In order for vaccination of males to become cost-effective in New Zealand, vaccine would need to be supplied at very low prices and administration costs would need to be minimised.
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Project description:BackgroundDespite increasing recognition that mentoring is essential early in medical careers, little is known about the prevalence of mentoring programs for medical students. We conducted this study to survey all medical schools in Germany regarding the prevalence of mentoring programs for medical students as well as the characteristics, goals and effectiveness of these programs.MethodsA definition of mentoring was established and program inclusion criteria were determined based on a review of the literature. The literature defined mentoring as a steady, long-lasting relationship designed to promote the mentee's overall development. We developed a questionnaire to assess key characteristics of mentoring programs: the advocated mentoring model, the number of participating mentees and mentors, funding and staff, and characteristics of mentees and mentors (e.g., level of training). In addition, the survey characterized the mentee-mentor relationship regarding the frequency of meetings, forms of communication, incentives for mentors, the mode of matching mentors and mentees, and results of program evaluations. Furthermore, participants were asked to characterize the aims of their programs. The questionnaire consisted of 34 questions total, in multiple-choice (17), numeric (7) and free-text (10) format. This questionnaire was sent to deans and medical education faculty in Germany between June and September 2009. For numeric answers, mean, median, and standard deviation were determined. For free-text items, responses were coded into categories using qualitative free text analysis.ResultsWe received responses from all 36 medical schools in Germany. We found that 20 out of 36 medical schools in Germany offer 22 active mentoring programs with a median of 125 and a total of 5,843 medical students (6.9 - 7.4% of all German medical students) enrolled as mentees at the time of the survey. 14 out of 22 programs (63%) have been established within the last 2 years. Six programs (27%) offer mentoring in a one-on-one setting. 18 programs (82%) feature faculty physicians as mentors. Nine programs (41%) involve students as mentors in a peer-mentoring setting. The most commonly reported goals of the mentoring programs include: establishing the mentee's professional network (13 programs, 59%), enhancement of academic performance (11 programs, 50%) and counseling students in difficulties (10 programs, 45%).ConclusionsDespite a clear upsurge of mentoring programs for German medical students over recent years, the overall availability of mentoring is still limited. The mentoring models and goals of the existing programs vary considerably. Outcome data from controlled studies are needed to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of different forms of mentoring for medical students.
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