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

Summary

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.

Conditions

• Family Navigator Plus
• Civic Engagement Plus

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Family Navigation

Participants will attend 5 one-on-one sessions over the course of 5 weeks; they will meet with a family navigator over video conferencing software (e.g., Zoom). The purpose of each sessions are as follows: 1) Provide an overview of the program and help parents understand their perceptions of child behaviors, 2) Train parents to find, access, and overcome barriers to mental health services, 3) Build parent capacity in understanding how mental health treatment works and how to communicate with providers, 4) Help parents understand the common function of child behaviors, and 5) Train parents to find, evaluate, and use online mental health tools. Participants will complete measures of child symptoms, parent activation, barriers to treatment, and/or satisfaction with the program before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and 3 months after completing the intervention.

BEHAVIORAL

Civic Engagement Plus

Participants will attend 5 one-on-one sessions over the course of 5 weeks; they will meet with a family navigator over video conferencing software (e.g., Zoom). The purpose of each sessions are as follows: 1) defines civic engagement within a developmental framework, and guides foster parents in discussing their child's developmental level, strengths, and opportunities for civic participation. 2) identifies developmentally appropriate civic activities and strategies to initiate and support youth involvement. 3) emphasizes goal setting, age-appropriate engagement strategies, collaboration with caseworkers, and structured problem-solving to address barriers to participation. 4) setting developmentally appropriate goals, 5) finding digital tools. Participants will complete measures of child symptoms, parent activation, barriers to treatment, and/or satisfaction with the program before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and 3 months after completing the intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• Northwestern University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

99 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-09-05

Primary Completion

2027-09-30

Completion

2027-09-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations