Navigation and Parent Peer Support to Promote Access and Retention of Children in Mental Health Services
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Mental Disorder, Child
- Sponsor
- University of Colorado, Denver
- Enrollment
- 240
- Locations
- 4
- Primary Endpoint
- Change in Services Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA)
- Last Updated
- 3 years ago
Overview
Brief Summary
Nearly one in five children in the United States has a mental health problem that interferes with daily functioning and requires intervention, and yet less than 50% of children who need mental health care receive any services. Families and especially from low-income and ethnically diverse backgrounds, experience a range of barriers to engaging in services for their children including: lack of recognition of problems and knowledge of available treatments, connecting to services, trust in providers, stigma; low income and ethnically diverse populations are especially affected by these barriers. In this work, the investigators propose to carry out initial testing of a research- and theory-based model of Parent Peer Navigation services to help engage families with children with significant but pre-clinical problems in mental health services in order to prevent future poorer outcomes for children, who otherwise may never receive services, or only receive services when their mental health issues become severely debilitating for themselves and their family.
Detailed Description
Parent peer navigation (PPN), provided by other caregivers who have lived experience raising a youth with mental health conditions, holds promise as a service that can aid in improving both youth and caregiver outcomes by overcoming system- and individual-level barriers to care. This proposed study will support initial testing of a research- and theory- based Parent Peer Navigation (PPN) model created by one of the nation's leading advocacy organizations for caregivers of children and youth with mental health challenges, the federally funded Family-Run Executive Directors Leadership Association. This model, called the National Parent Peer Support Practice Model (Practice Model) has an associated training program and aims to effectively engage parents/caregivers in necessary treatment for their children by helping them connect with assessment, treatment and community-based resources and prepare them to independently navigate the child serving system, community-based resources, and ongoing opportunities for support once the PPN provider is no longer involved. The Practice Model incorporates five theory- and research-based components of support: (1) information/educational, (2) instructional/skills development; (3) emotional/ affirming, (4) instrumental; and (5) advocacy. The study will focus on children in early stages of impairment as a result of mental health challenges for which prevention of further disability is possible. It will take advantage of implementation of the Practice Model through two non-profit family-run organizations (FROs) and will occur in three phases, beginning with preparatory work to develop recruitment strategies in collaboration with local schools, formalize implementation outcomes (acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity) and other measures followed by a Feasibility Study to finalize recruitment, procedures and measurement frames. Finally, in Phase 3, the investigators will conduct a cluster randomized trial to provide a preliminary test of the impact of the Practice Model on key caregiver and child outcomes. Children who are experiencing mental health challenges but have not had exposure to formal mental health services will be identified by collaborating schools and FROs/FSOs and referred for family support. Consenting families will be randomly assigned to a treatment group who will receive PPN services based on the Practice Model from participating FROs, or a comparison group who will be referred to a Family Support Organization which provide other types of resources (e.g., referrals, information). The investigators predict that youth and parents receiving PPN will show significantly greater rates of access, engagement and retention in services as compared to the comparison group. The investigators also predict that at 6 months following PPN onset, children in the treatment group will exhibit improved social/emotional functioning and that parents in the treatment group will exhibit increased empowerment and decreased parenting stress, as compared to those in the comparison group.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •PPN provider:
- •Over the age of 18 years
- •Has experience in providing PPN services to families
- •Has lived experience of having a child with mental health challenges
- •Employed by the collaborating Family Run Organization
- •Parents/Caregivers:
- •Over the age of 18 years,
- •Have a child aged 1-13 with significant mental health symptoms and impairment but who has had no formal mental health treatment
- •Aged 1-13 years
- •Has significant mental health symptoms and impairment
Exclusion Criteria
- •PPN provider:
- •His or her child is in crisis needing more intense levels of care
- •His or her child has been living continuously with parent for less than one year
- •In crisis needed more intense levels of care
- •Has been living continuously with parent for less than one year
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Change in Services Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA)
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 months and 6 months
The Brief Form of the Services Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA) obtains for each service setting, information about the specific type of service used, provider, duration and frequency of use, and reason for use. Questions are asked not only about child involvement but those aspects of the service that require parent involvement.
Secondary Outcomes
- Working Alliance Inventory - Short Form (WAI-S): Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- Family Journey Assessment (FJA): Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- Family Empowerment Scale (FES): Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ): Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- The Revised Short Form of the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CSQ):Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- Hope Scale: Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- School attendance: Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- School suspension: Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- School expulsion: Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)
- Youth Top Problems: Change is being assessed(Baseline, 3 months, 6 months)