Perceptions of Care and Perceived Discrimination: A Qualitative Assessment of Adults Living with Sickle Cell Disease.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a major public health concern with significant associated economic costs. Although the disease affects all ethnic groups, about 90% of individuals living with sickle cell disease in the USA are Black/African American. The purpose of this study was to assess the health care discrimination experiences of adults living with SCD and the quality of the relationship with their health care providers.

Reporting Perinatal Substance Use to Child Protective Services: Obstetric Provider Perspectives on the Impact on Care.

To understand obstetric provider perspectives on child protective services (CPS)-mandated reporting requirements and how they affect care for pregnant and postpartum patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). Key informant interviews were conducted virtually with obstetricians, nurse practitioners, and social workers caring for obstetric patients ( = 12). Providers were asked about their experience as mandated reporters working with patients with OUD.

Needs of Youth Enrolled in a Statewide System of Care: A Latent Class Analysis.

Objective: Access to wraparound care coordination within systems of care (SOC) is increasing nationwide for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families. Though wraparound care coordination serves a broad population of youth who experience a variety of complex needs, less is known about the impact of wraparound services based on these specified needs. Using latent class analysis, the current study aimed to first identify classes of youth based on their presenting needs and then examine the impact of class membership on treatment experiences and outcomes at baseline and six-month follow-up.

Needs of Caregivers of Youth Enrolled in a Statewide System of Care: A Latent Class Analysis.

Objective: Systems of care (SOC) provide a coordinated array of services to youth with serious emotional and behavioral problems and their families. Little is known about what caregiver-specific needs at presentation to care may contribute to use of and engagement with care coordination and subsequent youth and family outcomes. This study aimed to determine latent classes of youth enrolled in wraparound care coordination within a statewide SOC based on caregiver needs impacting youth functioning and identify the relationship between class membership and characteristics of participation in Child and Family Team meetings (CFTs) and mental health outcomes at six-month follow-up.

"Give up your mic": Building capacity and sustainability within community-based participatory research initiatives.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships strive to promote community capacity building and sustainability, yet initiatives often suffer when grants or relationships with academic partners end. To address these concerns, researchers hoping to develop truly sustainable CBPR partnerships should consider factors that promote the development of community capacity and, ultimately, independence. In this first-person account, using perspectives gathered from FAVOR, a Connecticut-based family-led advocacy organization and an academic researcher, we examine the practices and experiences of the members of a CBPR partnership focused on using community voice to inform changes in the state's children's behavioral health system of care.

Utilizing a CBPR approach to assess the impact of COVID-19 on individuals who receive publicly funded behavioral health services.

The coronavirus disease pandemic has highlighted significant gaps in community mental health services, placing vulnerable individuals at greater risk for mental health and substance use difficulties via disrupting their wellness journey. Guided by a wellness framework, a needs assessment was conducted among adult consumers of behavioral health services to understand their needs during the pandemic and to help develop and strengthen service delivery strategies. A team of three university researchers and four Consumer Researchers, who receive services at a publicly funded community mental health center, engaged in a community-based participatory project in which 13 focus groups were conducted with 51 consumers.

Trauma Symptoms and Relationship With Child and Family Team Meeting Characteristics and Outcomes in a Statewide System of Care.

Systems of care (SOCs) are comprehensive, community-based services for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders. For these youth, little is known about how trauma symptoms influence participation in SOC care coordination through the Child and Family Team (CFT) meeting. The current study assessed the extent to which exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and trauma symptoms were associated with participation in CFTs and youth and family outcomes.

Understanding Racial-Ethnic Disparities in Wraparound Care for Youths With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.

Objective: Systems of care (SOCs) were developed to increase access to and quality of care for children with emotional and behavioral difficulties and their families through the provision of coordinated, community-based, culturally competent, family-driven services. SOCs focus on wraparound care that is individualized to meet each family's needs. Previous research has illustrated significant disparities in outcomes of nonwraparound care on the basis of youths' race-ethnicity.

Predictors of Service Dosage, Recommendation, and Usage in an Early Childhood System of Care.

Objectives: Children and families enrolled in early childhood systems of care (SOC) present with various psychological and behavioral risk factors that may inhibit healthy development. Within a SOC, wraparound services are designed to increase families' access to numerous child-serving sectors in order to target those risk factors. This study examined whether child and family risk factors at enrollment in an early childhood SOC predicted dosage, service recommendation, and usage of recommended services.

Implementing Motivational Interviewing for Substance Misuse on Medical Inpatient Units: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: General medical hospitals provide care for a disproportionate share of patients who misuse substances. Hospitalization provides a unique opportunity to identify and motivate patients to address their substance misuse.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of three strategies for implementing motivational interviewing for substance misuse with general medical inpatients.

Tell it to Me Straight: The Benefits (and Struggles) of a Consumer-driven Assessment Process.

Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR), where consumers participate in the design and execution of an evaluation, holds promise for increasing the validity and usefulness of evaluations of services. However, there is no literature comparing methods and outcomes of studies conducted by professional evaluators with those conducted through a consumer-driven evaluation process. We attempt to fill this gap by presenting the methods and results from a qualitative evaluation conducted by professional evaluators along with one conducted by a team of consumer researchers who engaged in a CBPR process.

Comparing Early-Childhood and School-Aged Systems of Care for Children with Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties: Risk, Symptom Presentation, and Outcomes.

Objectives: Most large-scale evaluations of systems of care (SOCs) have focused on school-aged populations, with limited research examining early childhood SOCs. As a result, little is known about how risk profiles, symptom presentation, and outcomes may vary between early childhood and school-aged SOC participants. This descriptive study uses data from two SOCs-an early childhood SOC (EC-SOC) and a school-aged SOC (SA-SOC)-to examine the differences across age groups in how children and families present to SOCs and the extent to which risk factors and symptoms change over six months of enrollment.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Parenting Stress Among Ethnic Minority Adolescent Mothers.

Objectives: Parenting stress has been linked with negative outcomes for parents and their infants (e.g., parental depression, negative parenting behaviors, poor attachment).

Service-Related Barriers and Facilitators in an Early Childhood System of Care: Comparing the Perspectives of Parents and Providers.

Systems of care (SOCs) have the potential to enhance underserved families' access to integrated health and support services. Most scholarship on SOCs has involved school-aged children and adolescents. Thus, research is needed to better understand barriers to, and facilitators of, families' access to services during early childhood.

Child and Family Team Meeting Characteristics and Outcomes in a Statewide System of Care.

Systems of care (SOC) have relied on the wraparound care process to individualize community-based services for children and youth with serious emotional and behavioral difficulties. A core element of wraparound care is Child and Family Team meetings (CFTs), which are designed to give youth and families a leadership role in developing and guiding their plan of care. The National Wraparound Initiative (NWI) has identified Practice Standards regarding CFT implementation.

Examining the service-related experiences and outcomes of caregivers involved in a system of care who experienced everyday discrimination.

Individuals who report everyday experiences of discrimination are at heightened risk for adverse health outcomes and tend to report underutilization of health services. Systems of care (SOCs) have the potential to engage members of minority groups and to reduce health disparities. We examined the service-related experiences of predominantly Latinx caregivers enrolled in a SOC for their children with severe psychological health needs.

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Cervical Cancer Screening Services Among Contractors of the Connecticut Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.

Racial/ethnic minority women are at increased risk for cervical cancer. The objective of this study is to use performance management data from the Connecticut Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (CBCCEDP) to determine whether race/ethnicity disparities exist in human papillomavirus (HPV) co-testing uptake across CBCCEDP contractors. Secondary analysis of Connecticut's Minimum Data Elements data for 2013-2015 among 10 contractors participating in the CBCCEDP.

Parenting stress as a mediator of trauma exposure and mental health outcomes in young children.

Exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) significantly impacts outcomes for children in behavioral health systems of care (SOCs). The present study built on previous research that found parenting stress influences outcomes for children exposed to PTEs. The sample included 184 young children and their families who were enrolled in an early childhood SOC.

Maltreatment, family environment, and social risk factors: Determinants of the child welfare to juvenile justice transition among maltreated children and adolescents.

This study prospectively examines the transition from the child welfare system into the juvenile justice system among 10,850 maltreated children and adolescents and explores how patterns of risks, including severity and chronicity of maltreatment, adverse family environment, and social risk factors, affect service systems transition. Almost three percent of maltreated children and adolescents had their first juvenile justice adjudication within an average of approximately six years of their initial child protective services investigation (CPS). Social risk factors, including a child's age at index CPS investigation (older), gender (boys), and race/ethnicity (Black and Hispanic) significantly predicted the risk of transition into the juvenile justice system.

Reflections on a Community Psychology Setting and the Future of the Field.

The 50th anniversary of the Swampscott Conference offers an opportunity to reflect on a community psychology setting, The Consultation Center at Yale, that was formed in response to the 1963 Community Mental Health Act and the 1965 Swampscott Conference. The Center has flourished as a community psychology setting for practice, research, and training for 39 of the 50 years since Swampscott. Its creation and existence over this period offers an opportunity for reflection on the types of settings needed to sustain the field into the future.

Stakeholders' perspectives on community-based participatory research to enhance mental health services.

Historically, consumers of mental health services have not been given meaningful roles in research and change efforts related to the services they use. This is quickly changing as scholars and a growing number of funding bodies now call for greater consumer involvement in mental health services research and improvement. Amidst these calls, community-based participatory research (CBPR) has emerged as an approach which holds unique promise for capitalizing on consumer involvement in mental health services research and change.

Children exposed to the arrest of a family member: Associations with mental health.

The arrest of a parent or other family member can be detrimental to children's health. To study the impact of exposure to the arrest of a family member on children's mental health and how said association may change across developmental periods, we examined baseline data for children (birth through 11 years) entering family-based systems of care (SOC). Children exposed to the arrest of a family member had experienced significantly more 5.

Relationships between Child Emotional and Behavioral Symptoms and Caregiver Strain and Parenting Stress.

Children with emotional and behavioral disturbance often have difficulties in multiple symptom domains. This study investigates the relationships between child symptoms and caregiver strain and parenting stress among 177 youth and their caregivers participating in a school-based system of care. Youth were grouped by symptom domain and included those with low scores on both internalizing and externalizing symptoms, those with only high internalizing symptoms, those with only high externalizing symptoms, and those with high symptoms levels in both internalizing and externalizing domains.

Parenting Stress, Social Support, and Depression for Ethnic Minority Adolescent Mothers: Impact on Child Development.

Rates of teenage pregnancies are higher for African American and Latina adolescents compared to their White peers. African American and Latina adolescent mothers also experience more adversities than their White peers, such as higher rates of depression, school dropout, and economic disadvantage. Furthermore, children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk for adverse development.

Health, emergency department use, and early identification of young children exposed to trauma.

Background: Childhood trauma is an important public health problem with financial, physical health, and mental health repercussions. Emergency departments (EDs) are often the first point of contact for many young children affected by emotionally or psychologically traumatic events (e.g.