Mental Health Services for Foster Children

描述(由申请者提供)：该职业发展奖的最终目标是为申请者提供必要的技能和知识，以研究寄养儿童的生态心理健康服务模式。该奖项将允许申请者获得必要的专业知识，以开发和研究将精神健康功能纳入儿童福利服务业务的服务模式，并在寄养家庭和学校提供注重生态的服务。有几个因素为发展有效的针对具体情况的服务模式提供了难得的机会，包括儿童福利临床服务的高额支出、儿童福利服务的普遍性质以及最近对寄养儿童学业成就低和许多寄养家庭条件恶劣的关注。拟议的模式将把心理健康干预纳入现有的儿童福利服务，以利用寄养家庭和学校现有的服务联系，但有效性证据有限。通过这一职业发展奖，申请者将在研究方法、儿童福利直接实践以及与寄养儿童的应用研究方面建立强大的背景。拟议的目标包括获得研究和统计方法方面的高级技能；在寄养家庭和学校实施有效干预技术方面的知识和技能；使用增强模式可持续性的战略的技能；以及了解机构和州一级的因素如何影响可持续性。这些增强的技能和知识将使申请者能够从事精神健康服务研究，目标是研究可持续、有效的寄养儿童服务模式。 研究计划包括两项研究。在第一个阶段，将使用适合于集群数据纵向分析的方法进行二次分析，以测试寄养父母和机构层面对寄养儿童情绪和行为问题随时间的变化的影响。第二项研究将是为有行为问题的儿童提供寄养家庭和学校综合干预的试点研究，包括提供寄养行为管理培训、与教师进行案例咨询，以及支持寄养父母和教师使用行为管理和支持学习成绩的策略。一个由现有的精神健康提供者、个案工作者和辅助专业人员组成的提供者团队将在现有的机构中提供服务。这项初步研究将成为未来R01项目的基础，以开发和测试寄养家庭和学校为寄养儿童提供的综合心理健康服务模式的有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ultimate goal of this Career Development Award is to provide the applicant with the skills and knowledge necessary to study an ecological mental health service model for foster children. The award will allow the applicant to gain the expertise necessary to develop and study service models that integrate mental health functions into child welfare service operations and provide ecologically focused services in foster homes and in schools. Several factors provide an exceptional opportunity to develop an effective context-specific service model, including the high expenditures on clinical services in child welfare, the pervasive nature of child welfare services, and the recent attention on foster children's low academic achievement and the poor conditions in many foster homes. The proposed model will integrate mental health interventions into existing child welfare services to capitalize on the existing service contacts that occur in foster homes and schools with limited evidence of effectiveness. With this Career Development Award, the applicant will build upon a strong background in research methods, direct practice in child welfare, and applied research with foster children. The proposed goals include gaining advanced skills in research and statistical methods; knowledge and skills in the implementation of effective intervention technologies in foster homes and schools; skills in the use of strategies to enhance model sustainability and an understanding of how agency and state-level factors affect sustainability. These enhanced skills and knowledge will allow the applicant to pursue mental health services research with the goal of studying sustainable, effective service models for foster children. The research plan consists of two studies. In the first, secondary analyses using methods appropriate for longitudinal analysis of clustered data will be used to test foster parent and agency-level effects on changes in foster children's emotional and behavioral problems over time. The second study will be a pilot study of an integrated foster home-school intervention for children with behavior problems that will involve providing foster behavior management training, case consultation with teachers, and support of foster parents and teachers in their use of behavior management and strategies to support academic performance. A provider team including existing mental health providers, caseworkers, and paraprofessionals will provide services in an existing agency. This pilot study will form the basis for a future R01 project to develop and test the effectiveness of an integrated foster home and school-based mental health service model for foster children.