How Do Treatment Protocols Affect the Use of Engagement Practices in Youth Mental Health Services?

Purpose: Treatment engagement poses challenges for youth mental health providers. With the expansion of evidence-based treatments (EBTs), providers face complex decisions regarding how to engage youth and families using available information sources. This study investigated how EBT protocols are associated with the selection and delivery of engagement practices.

Implementation-as-Usual in Community-Based Organizations Providing Specialized Services to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Mixed Methods Study.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder. ASD community-based organizations (ASD-CBOs) underutilize or inconsistently utilize evidence-based practices (ASD-EBPs) despite numerous available EBPs to treat ASD. Nonetheless, ASD-CBOs implement changes to practices regularly.

The influence of parents and schools on developmental trajectories of antisocial behaviors in Caucasian and African American youths.

African American youths are overrepresented in the American juvenile justice system relative to Caucasians. Yet, research on antisocial behaviors (ASB) has focused on predominantly Caucasian populations. Furthermore, relatively little is known about how environmental factors, such as supportive parenting (e.

Observational Assessment of Engagement Strategies to Promote Parent Homework Planning in Community-Based Child Mental Health Treatment: A Pilot Study.

Therapy homework includes tasks given to clients to complete outside of session to facilitate new knowledge/skills or to advance treatment goals. Homework completion, an important element of parent engagement in child mental health (MH) treatment, has been associated with improved child outcomes. The current pilot study assessed the design/assign phase of the therapy homework process to examine a) the extent to which therapists implemented engagement strategies with parents and b) whether therapist deployment of engagement strategies in early treatment predicted subsequent parent participation in homework planning.

Using Observational Assessment to Help Identify Factors Associated with Parent Participation Engagement in Community-Based Child Mental Health Services.

Background: Parent engagement in child mental health (MH) services has received growing attention due to its significance in intervention outcomes and evidence-based care. In particular, parent participation engagement (PPE) reflects active and responsive contributions in and between sessions. Yet, limited research has examined factors associated with PPE, particularly within community-based MH services where PPE is low and highly diverse families are often served.

Randomized Trial of the Parent And Caregiver Active Participation Toolkit for Child Mental Health Treatment.

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine preliminary feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a toolkit (Parent And Caregiver Active Participation Toolkit) to increase parent participation in community-based child mental health services. Study participants included 29 therapists (93% female; M age = 34.1 years; 38% Latino) and 20 parent/child dyads (children 80% female; M age = 8.

Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) 2015: advancing efficient methodologies through community partnerships and team science : Seattle, WA, USA. 24-26 September 2015.

Introduction to the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration: advancing efficient methodologies through team science and community partnerships Cara Lewis, Doyanne Darnell, Suzanne Kerns, Maria Monroe-DeVita, Sara J. Landes, Aaron R. Lyon, Cameo Stanick, Shannon Dorsey, Jill Locke, Brigid Marriott, Ajeng Puspitasari, Caitlin Dorsey, Karin Hendricks, Andria Pierson, Phil Fizur, Katherine A.

Psychoeducation as a Mediator of Treatment Approach on Parent Engagement in Child Psychotherapy for Disruptive Behavior.

Parent engagement in treatment for child disruptive behavior has been associated with improved child outcomes in care. However, many families who enter care do not receive an adequate dose of treatment, and parents are often not involved. We examined therapists' use of psychoeducation, a therapeutic practice used to present factual information about target problems and treatments, and its association with parent engagement in child psychotherapy.

Problem-specific racial/ethnic disparities in pathways from maltreatment exposure to specialty mental health service use for youth in child welfare.

The authors examined racial/ethnic differences in pathways from maltreatment exposure to specialty mental health service use for youth in contact with the Child Welfare system. Participants included 1,600 non-Hispanic White, African American, and Latino youth (age 4-14) who were the subjects of investigations for alleged maltreatment and participated in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Maltreatment exposure, internalizing, and externalizing problems were assessed at baseline and subsequent specialty mental health service use was assessed 1 year later.

Mental health service use by youths in contact with child welfare: racial disparities by problem type.

Objective: This study examined racial disparities in mental health service use by problem type (internalizing versus externalizing) for youths in contact with the child welfare system.

Methods: Participants included 1,693 non-Hispanic white, African-American, and Hispanic youths (ages four to 14) from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, a national probability study of youths who were the subject of investigations of maltreatment by child welfare agencies. Mental health need, assessed at baseline, was considered present if the youth had internalizing or externalizing scores in the clinical range on either the Child Behavior Checklist or the Youth Self-Report.

Do social networks push families toward or away from youth mental health services?: A national study of families in child welfare.

Social support networks may encourage or dissuade help-seeking for youth behavior problems in ways that contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in mental health services. We examined how parental social network characteristics were related to the use of mental health services in a diverse sample of families in contact with Child Welfare. Data from 1519 families of White (n=812), African American (n=418), and Latino (n=289) origin were drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being.

The youth self report: applicability and validity across younger and older youths.

The Youth Self Report (YSR) is a widely used measure of youth emotional and behavioral problems. Although the YSR was designed for youths ages 11 to 18, no studies have systematically evaluated whether youths younger than age 11 can make valid reports on this measure. This study thus examined the reliability and validity of the YSR scales scores for younger (ages 7-10; n = 184) and older (ages 11-14; n = 147) youths.