Clinical trial NCT06978959: Family Navigator Plus for Foster Parents
Official title: Building Capacity for Youth Mental Wellness: Feasibility and Acceptability for a Mental Health Family Navigator Model for Foster Parents
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Intervention
Keywords: foster parents
family navigator
psychoeducation
Lead sponsor: Northwestern University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
First posted: 2025-05-18
Enrollment: 12
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief 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). The investigators hypothesize that our program will be acceptable, useful, and feasible for foster parents of youth with mental health needs.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Foster parent of a youth between the ages of 6 to 17 with mental health needs
* Living in Illinois, United States
* English or Spanish speaking
* Has access to internet and videoconferencing

Exclusion Criteria:

- Participated in the FN+ Focus Groups or PROACTIVE Parent Pilot Study

Primary outcomes:
measure: Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ)
timeFrame: Post-Intervention (Week 5) and 3 Month Follow Up (Week 18)
measure: Post Session Questionnaire (PsQ)
timeFrame: After Completing Each Session (Weeks 1 - 5)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Parent Activation Measure - Mental Health
timeFrame: Baseline (Week 1), Post-Intervention (Week 5), 3 month Follow Up (Week 18)
measure: Barriers to Treatment Participation
timeFrame: Baseline (Week 1), Post-Intervention (Week 5), 3 month Follow Up (Week 18)
measure: PROMIS-Parent Proxy Pediatric Depressive Symptoms Short Form 8a (parent-report)
timeFrame: Baseline (Week 1), Post-Intervention (Week 5), 3 month Follow Up (Week 18)
measure: PROMIS-Parent Proxy Pediatric Anxiety Short Form 8a (parent-report)
timeFrame: Baseline (Week 1), Post-Intervention (Week 5), 3 month Follow Up (Week 18)
measure: Pediatric Symptoms Checklist - 17 (Parent Report)
timeFrame: Baseline (Week 1), Post-Intervention (Week 5), 3 month Follow Up (Week 18)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Chicago
country: United States
facility: Northwestern University
state: Illinois
Study officials:
affiliation: Northwestern University
name: Heather J Risser, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Risser, H. J., Morford, A. E., Murphy, A. N., Pinkerton, L. M., Law, C., Yang, Y., ... & Boisseau, C. L. (2024). Feasibility and acceptability of a family navigator program to support foster parents of youth with mental health concerns. Children and Youth Services Review, 160, 107578.