Citation

Bickman L, Heflinger CA, Northrup D, Sonnichsen S, Schilling S. J. Child Fam. Stud. 1998; 7(3): 269-282.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1023/A:1022937327049

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Vanderbilt Caregiver Empowerment Project evaluated a training program designed to enhance empowerment of caregiver and their subsequent involvement in the mental health treatment of their children. The intervention utilized a multi-component parent training curriculum that was designed to enhance: (a) knowledge of the service system; (b) skills needed to interact with the mental health system; and (c) the caregiver' s mental health services self-efficacy designed to improve caregivers beliefs in their ability to collaborate with service providers. The resulting increased empowerment was hypothesized to increase caretaker involvement, which should affect service use and ultimately the mental health status of the child. A randomized design was used to test the effectiveness of this model with caregivers of children receiving mental health services. The results one-year after the training replicated the intermediate outcomes of the project conducted 3-months after the training. The initial training continued to significantly influence the parent's knowledge and mental health services self-efficacy. However, the intervention had no effect on caregiver involvement in treatment, service use or the mental health status of the children.