Working with staff and volunteers from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, Dr. Megan Feely is developing a well-being assessment for children in foster care, designed for use by child advocates. The assessment will be based in part on two years of state data on more than 1,000 children in foster care in Missouri. “There are some existing child assessments, but they do not capture the family relationships specific to foster care, and we want to include those issues,” Dr. Feely says.

In a separate project, Dr. Feely is studying the implementation of prenatal support programs for women who become pregnant while they are clients of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. She is surveying clinicians to gather their views of the program, including whether or not they refer clients to the program.