Building Capacity for Youth Mental Wellness: Family Navigator Model for Foster Parents

Building Capacity for Youth Mental Wellness: Feasibility and Acceptability for a Mental Health Family Navigator Model for Foster Parents (FN+ Phase 2)

The investigators have designed a 5-week Family Navigator Plus (FN+) educational program to support foster parents in better understanding their youth's mental health needs and in finding mental health services. The purpose of this interventional study is to assess the the program's acceptability (e.g., satisfaction, barriers to participation, and burden), utility (e.g., how useful foster parents found the program to be), and feasibility (e.g., number referred who meet eligibility, time to complete assessments, self-reported feasibility), compared to Attention Control (AC). The investigators hypothesize that our program will be acceptable, useful, and feasible for foster parents of youth with mental health needs.

We will conduct a pilot RCT (n = 60) as a test of the FN+ Program feasibility and preliminary effectiveness to improve individual-level variables, relative to Attention Control (AC). The primary outcome will be increased foster parent activation (P-PAM-MH). Secondary outcomes include reduced barriers to treatment and perceived change in parent capacity to manage youth MH care. Randomization: We will use simple randomization to assign foster parents to condition. Foster parents (n=60) will be randomized to the either the FN+ or AC. We will pilot all randomization procedures including those designed to prevent allocation bias. Randomization will be conducted by a research analyst who is blind to hypotheses and is not involved in any other aspect of the study. The research analyst will only share the names and condition assignment with the FNs who do not know study aims or hypotheses and will keep research staff blinded to condition. The ACHW will conduct all outcome data and remain blind to condition. The ACHW will remain masked to treatment assignment until the trial is complete. Success in masking will be monitored using the Evaluator Masking Assessment upon the completion of each data collection time point for each parent. Inclusion and Exclusion criteria are the same as Aim 2 with the addition that any foster parent that participated in Aim 1 or 2 will be excluded from the RCT.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Foster parent, kinship caregiver, or guardian, of a youth between the ages of 6 to 17 with mental health needs
• Parent adopted child from foster care
• Living in Illinois, United States
• English speaking
• Has access to internet and videoconferencing

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participated in the FN+ Focus Groups, Open Trial or PROACTIVE Parent Pilot Study