A Theory-Driven Intervention and Evaluation to Explore Family Caregiver Empowerment

Abstract

The conceptualization, development, implementation, and evaluation of the Family Empowerment Project are described in this article. A multicomponent parent training curriculum was designed, incorporating three components: knowledge about the service system; skills with which to interact with the system; and mental health services efficacy, or improved and optimistic attitudes of efficacy and intention to collaborate actively with service providers in securing appropriate treatment for their children. An experimental design was used to test the efficacy of this model with caregivers of children receiving mental health services (n = 250), randomly assigned to the parent group curriculum or a no-treatment control group. Intermediate outcomes of the project at a 3-month follow-up were assessed. The parent group intervention was found to significantly affect two factors that appear crucial to increasing caregiver empowerment: knowledge of the mental health services system and mental health services efficacy.