The Effect of Placement Change on Foster Children's Utilization of Emergency Mental Health Services

Abstract The Effect of Placement Change on Foster Children's Utilization of Emergency Mental Health ServicesbyKya Grace Fawley-KingDoctor of Philosophy in Social WelfareUniversity of California, BerkeleyProfessor Lonnie Snowden, ChairPlacement instability is a significant problem within the foster care system. For children who have already been removed from the care of their biological parents, additional caregiver changes can have negative effects. There is evidence that foster children who change placements frequently are more likely than their peers to suffer from emotional and behavioral problems. While researchers have found that children who change placements have an increased likelihood of using outpatient mental health services, little is known about the relationship between placement change and use of crisis or inpatient psychiatric services.The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of placement change during the first 90 days in foster care on utilization of crisis services and inpatient psychiatric treatment among a sample of 37,699 Californian children and youth who started a new foster care spell between October 1998 and March 2001. The results suggest that the relationship between placement change and use of crisis and inpatient psychiatric services is bi-directional and is dependent on the type of placement change. These findings suggest that foster children with psychiatric problems may be more likely to have certain types of placement changes, and that these changes can be detrimental for their mental health

The Parent Participation Engagement Measure (PPEM): Reliability and Validity in Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Services

Parent participation in community-based child mental health services is an important yet understudied process associated with treatment effectiveness. This paper describes the development and psychometrics of the Parent Participation Engagement Measure (PPEM) in a sample of 1374 parents and 563 youth receiving publicly-funded mental health services. Analyses indicated excellent internal consistency, and model fit indices/factor loadings supported a one-factor model. Convergent and discriminant validity were supported, although some coefficients were modest in magnitude. Psychometric results were consistent for Caucasian versus Hispanic, parent versus youth, and English versus Spanish-language respondents. The clinical and research utility of this measure are discussed