ERIC Number: EJ932045
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Aug
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1062-1024
EISSN: N/A
The Development and Evaluation of a Parent Empowerment Program for Family Peer Advocates
Rodriguez, James; Olin, S. S.; Hoagwood, Kimberly E.; Shen, Sa; Burton, Geraldine; Radigan, Marleen; Jensen, Peter S.
Journal of Child and Family Studies, v20 n4 p397-405 Aug 2011
Family-to-family services are emerging as an important adjunctive service to traditional mental health care and a vehicle for improving parent engagement and service use in children's mental health services. In New York State, a growing workforce of Family Peer Advocates (FPA) is delivering family-to-family services. We describe the development and evaluation of a professional program to enhance Family Peer Advocate professional skills, called the Parent Engagement and Empowerment Program (PEP). We detail the history and content of PEP and provide data from a pre/post and 6-month follow up evaluation of 58 FPA who participated in the first Statewide regional training effort. Self-efficacy, empowerment, and skills development were assessed at 3 time points: baseline, post-training, and 6-month follow-up. The largest changes were in self-efficacy and empowerment. Regional differences suggest differences in Family Peer Advocate workforce across areas of the state. This evaluation also provides the first systematic documentation of Family Peer Advocate activities over a six-month period. Consistent with peer specialists within the adult health care field, FPA in the children's mental health field primarily focused on providing emotional support and service access issues. Implications for expanding family-to-family services and integrating it more broadly into provider organizations are described.
Descriptors: Health Services, Self Efficacy, Mental Health Programs, Mental Health, Parent Education, Family Programs, Empowerment, Peer Groups, Skill Development, Advocacy, Program Development, Program Evaluation, Parent Participation, Child Welfare, Pretests Posttests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A