Abstract
Difficulty engaging families in mental health treatment is seen as an underlying reason for the disparity between child mental health need and service use. Interpretation of the literature on how best to engage families is complicated by a diversity of operational definitions of engagement outcomes and related interventions. Thus, we sought to review studies of engagement interventions using a structured methodology allowing for an aggregate summary of the most common practices associated with effective engagement interventions. We identified 344 articles through a combination of database search methods and recommendations from engagement research experts; 38 articles describing 40 studies met our inclusion criteria. Following coding methods described by Chorpita and Daleiden (J Consul Clin Psychol 77(3):566–579, 2009, doi:10.1037/a0014565), we identified 22 engagement practice elements from 89 study groups that examined or implemented family engagement strategies. Most frequently identified engagement practice elements included assessment, accessibility promotion, psychoeducation about services, homework assignment, and appointment reminders. Assessment and accessibility promotion were two practice elements present in at least 50 % of treatment groups that outperformed a control group in a randomized controlled trial. With the exception of appointment reminders, these frequently identified engagement practice elements had a high likelihood of being associated with winning treatments when they were used. This approach offers a novel way of summarizing the engagement literature and provides the foundation for enhancing clinical decision-making around treatment engagement.
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Notes
Exploding a subject within a search strategy allows for the retrieval of results that contain the subject in combination with all of its narrower forms.
Noted in the reference section by an asterisk (*).
30 of 40 studies reported data on participants’ gender.
35 of 40 studies reported data on participants’ age.
Categories are not mutually exclusive; therefore, percentages do not equal 100 % whenever presented in this section.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a sub-award to the University of Maryland School of Social Work through a grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services 1915(c) Community Alternatives to Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities National Demonstration Grant Waiver to the Innovations Institute of the School of Medicine, University of Maryland (#10-10226G/M00B040011). We acknowledge Kerri Chambers for her assistance with data entry.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. However, Bruce F. Chorpita is President and Eric L. Daleiden is Chief Operating Officer of PracticeWise, LLC, a private behavioral health consulting corporation. Kimberly D. Becker is a consultant to PracticeWise, LLC.
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Lindsey, M.A., Brandt, N.E., Becker, K.D. et al. Identifying the Common Elements of Treatment Engagement Interventions in Children’s Mental Health Services. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 17, 283–298 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-013-0163-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-013-0163-x