Table 2.

Ripple study measures and procedures

Outcomes for young people	Measures
Enhanced social and emotional wellbeing	Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)[67], empowerment graphic (S. Davidson, personal communication)
Enhanced quality of life	Child Health Utility Index (CHU9D)[87]
Better engagement with school	Selected questions from Pathways Longitudinal Study [70], Beyond 18 Study [71]
Placement stability and experiences of contact with family of origin	Selected questions from Beyond 18 Study [71], demographic questions
Fewer mental health problems	K10 [66]
Less harmful use of substances	ASSIST-Y [68]
Improved social function	Friendship Scale [69], SDQ [67] peer & prosocial subscales
Less involvement in crime	Questions developed by study team for economic evaluation - Resource Use Questionnaire
Outcomes for carers and case managers
Enhanced health-related quality of life	AQoL8D [88]
Increased satisfaction, sense of competence and efficacy with carer role; better access to self-care and support	Carer Users Expectations Survey (CUES) [89]
Better relationships with young people	Family Assessment Device – General Functioning Scale (FAD-GFS) [90]
Improved skills for managing behaviours and emotions of concern	Emotions as a Child questionnaire (EAC) [91]
Outcomes for services
Measure of organisational learning capacity and readiness for transformational change in human services	Organisational Learning Capacity Scale (OLCS) [92]
Costs and cost offsets of the Ripple intervention
The costs of the Ripple intervention The costs are calculated to include the time commitment of the Ripple practitioners, valued at professional award rates, and the recipients of their reflective, educative and consultative professional services.	Multiple data sources, including: a. Time-use records maintained by Ripple practitioners b. Information from youth, carer and case manager respondents c. Administrative data sets and interviews with key budgetary personnel
Cost offsets of the Ripple intervention - Broad resource use of participating young people and carers	The Resource Use Questionnaire developed for the project collects broad resource use of participating young people and carers over the previous year for both assessment waves: including use of health and welfare services, educational attendance and workforce productivity and contacts with civic compliance authorities. Carers provide relevant information about themselves and the consenting youth in their care. All participating young people and their carers are asked to consent separately to the release of their confidential medical and pharmaceutical service use history (an administrative dataset) for the preceding 12 months, from the Australian Government.
The costs of consulting health professionals	Valued using published prices available in Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedules.
Costs to the education and justice sectors	Derived (top down) from publicly available cost data.
Interview and data management procedures for both waves: A CSO case manager contacts each young person and carer to ask permission for contact from a trained Ripple research assistant. At a face-to-face meeting in their preferred location, the respondents are asked for informed consent and assured of privacy and lack of coercion before proceeding with the interview. Procedures for data management ensure anonymous data storage as well as appropriate linkage between each young person, carer and case manager. The measures are incorporated in an interview schedule that is administered face-to-face by trained research assistants. Respondents are invited to complete self-report measures on iPads provided. Research assistants provide help if requested by the participant, or otherwise assist with completion on paper. Data entry is automated for measures included on the iPads and otherwise completed and checked by the research assistants. Youth and carer participants are offered reimbursement of $30 for participation