Enhancing Behavioral Health Services for Child Welfare-Involved Parents: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT

Behavioral health issues are prevalent among child welfare-involved parents. Despite associations with parenting challenges and maltreatment, parents’ behavioral health conditions often go untreated. In this study, we explore challenges with addressing behavioral health needs of parents involved in the child welfare system. Focus groups with child welfare and behavioral health providers were conducted to explore gaps and opportunities to enhance behavioral health care for child-welfare involved parents. Three themes were identified: parental motivation and buy-in, behavioral health assessments and screenings, and communication and service coordination. Implications for policy and practice include increased training on measurement-based care and effective cross-system collaboration.

KEYWORDS:

• Child welfare
• parental behavioral health
• measurement-based care
• assessment
• screening
• engagement

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Florida Institute for Child Welfare [102617]. The authors would like to express gratitude for the many contribution of XXXX to the conceptualization and implementation of this project. XXXX is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number T32MH20061. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

None of the authors of this paper has competing interests, financial or otherwise, in any of the findings of this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shamra M. Boel-Studt

Shamra Boel-Studt is an Associate Professor at the Florida State University College of Social Work. Her research focuses on improving the quality and effectiveness of services for children and families involved in the child welfare system.

Heather A. Flynn

Heather A. Flynn is a clinical psychologist and Professor and Vice Chair at the Florida State University, College of Medicine in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine.  She is the Director of the FSU Center for Behavioral Health Integration.  Dr. Flynn’s work since for the past 20 years has been focused on improved identification and treatment of behavioral health disorders including mental health and substance use disorders.

Megan E. Deichen Hansen

Megan E. Deichen Hansenis a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Behavioral Science & Social Medicine Department of Florida State University’s College of Medicine. The underlying goal of her research is to: 1) to provide a holistic understanding of the ways that social determinants of health influence familial health outcomes; 2) to promote informed decision-making among healthcare providers; and 3) to identify areas in which policies and programs can be strengthened to promote health equity for families.

Lisa S. Panisch

Lisa S. Panisch is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Psychiatry and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Her research focuses on intergenerational patterns of trauma, with an emphasis on trauma-focused interventions, intersections of trauma, race, and health disparities, and pre- and peri-natal mechanisms of trauma transmission and subsequent maternal-child health and mental health outcomes across the lifespan.