Abstract
Parents involved with child welfare were interviewed to ascertain their experiences with the outpatient mental health treatment they and their children had received. Semi-structured interviews consisting of open ended questions were conducted with 20 parents recruited from three agencies providing home-based services to children and families referred by child welfare. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed using the traditional qualitative iterative approach of reading and re-reading transcripts to identify patterns in the data. Four primary themes emerged from the analysis: relationships with therapists, perceived treatment benefits, availability and accessibility of services and therapists, and treatment expectations. Recommendations for practice and for future research are made.