# Dissemination and Implementation of the Safe Environment for Every Kid(SEEK) Model for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 2021 · $760,596

## Abstract

Project Summary
Child maltreatment (CM) is a major public health problem, affecting many lives, in the short-and long-term,
and costing individuals, families and society dearly. The Healthy People Goals 2020 call for reducing fatal and
nonfatal CM. Achieving this hinges on broad implementation of effective, evidence-based preventive
interventions, such as the Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK) model, developed for pediatric primary care.
Primary care offers an excellent opportunity to help address prevalent psychosocial problems (e.g., parental
depression) that are risk factors for CM. By addressing such problems, SEEK can strengthen families and
support parents, and thereby promote children’s health, development and safety, help prevent CM, and benefit
the health of the US population. The proposed research focuses on examining intervention strategies aimed at
optimizing SEEK’s adoption, implementation and sustainment and their effectiveness in helping prevent CM.
 Despite the strong supporting evidence from two large federally-funded randomized controlled trials, SEEK
has not been widely adopted. The overarching goal of the proposed study is examine two technology driven
implementation strategies to scale-up SEEK - in pediatric and family medicine primary care settings. As in
withPAR-16-238, this proposal targets “strategies to implement health promotion, prevention, screening, early
detection, and diagnostic interventions, as well as effective treatments, clinical procedures, or guidelines into
existing care systems” through these aims: 1) Evaluate the effectiveness of targeted implementation strategies
on the implementation of SEEK in primary care settings; 2) Evaluate barriers and facilitators to successful
service start-up and sustainment of SEEK; and 3) Examine effectiveness in preventing CM.
 This randomized Type III hybrid mixed methods design will examine how advances in medical training can
bolster SEEK’s adoption and implementation. Leveraging a commitment by 5 major healthcare systems serving
diverse populations across the US, we have a valuable opportunity to evaluate key training approaches
increasingly common in medical education – independent online training (IND) and in-depth structured
training via a Maintenance of Certification Quality Improvement (QI) project, approved by the American
Boards of Pediatrics and of Family Medicine (MOC-4). In addition, we will evaluate SEEKonline, software that
assists busy primary care practitioners (PCPs) implement the model, with fidelity. This will be compared to a
“Traditional” paper and pencil strategy in terms of their impact on implementation and in preventing CM.
 We will also assess the economic costs associated with implementing SEEK, a very promising approach for
helping prevent children from being abused and neglected, and the many sequelae. The knowledge gained
should improve pediatric primary care to better address prevalent psychosocial problems and benefit children
and their f...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10247707
- **Project number:** 5R01HD092489-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **Principal Investigator:** HOWARD DUBOWITZ
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $760,596
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-06 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10247707

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10247707, Dissemination and Implementation of the Safe Environment for Every Kid(SEEK) Model for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect (5R01HD092489-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10247707. Licensed CC0.

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