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Symposia

Parenting / Families

Session: Service-Delivery Methods for Building Parent Capacity in the Face of Child Adversity

5 - (SYM 46) Building Capacity for Youth Mental Wellness: Feasibility and Acceptability for a Mental Health Family Navigator Model for Foster Parents

Saturday, November 18, 2023
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM PST
Location: Washougal (408), Level 4
Background: Youth in foster care experience disparities in mental health (MH) symptoms and access to treatment. Compared to the general youth population, youth in foster care are 4 to 5 times more likely to attempt suicide, and about 3 times more likely to experience trauma or have a depressive or anxiety disorder. About half of youth in foster care exhibit clinically significant MH needs, but less than 25% of those youth receive MH services. Those who do are less likely to access evidence-based treatment (EBT). Youth in foster care depend on foster parents to recognize symptoms and navigate a complex system of care. However, foster parents may not recognize MH symptoms or know how to seek care.

Method: We used a pre-post design to pilot a 4-session, expanded family navigator model designed to build foster parent capacity to: 1) recognize their child's MH needs; 2) find and enroll the child in EBT; 3) manage the child's difficult behaviors using the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences framework; and 4) support treatment goals at home. Measures included satisfaction ratings, the Pediatric symptom Checklist-17 (PSC-17), and PROMIS Anxiety and Depression measures.

Results: Feasibility and acceptability ratings were excellent. All parents indicated they were either very satisfied (71%) or mostly satisfied (29%) with the service they received. Foster parents provided very positive satisfaction ratings for all aspects of the program. Over the course of the study, parents reported 71% of the children showed improvement in internalizing symptoms and 57% showed improvement in externalizing symptoms as reported on the PSC-17. Of the four youth who scored in the clinical range at the pre-intervention assessment, two (50%) scored in the sub-clinical range at the post-intervention assessment. On the PROMIS measures five out of seven (71%) youth showed a reduction in anxiety, and three out of seven (43%) experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: Overall, results indicate that the expanded family navigator program is a feasible and acceptable method for building foster parent capacity to manage their youth's mental health needs and support treatment goals at home.