The Family VOICE Study

Background: Emerging data on serious antipsychotic medication side effects (e.g. new onset diabetes)has heightened concerns about sharp increases in "off label" pediatric antipsychotic treatment of mood/behavioral disorders, and led to increased scrutiny of pediatric mental health treatment. Several states are developing antipsychotic medication pre-authorization programs to reduce inappropriate or unsafe prescribing. This Healthcare system change, however, fails to address a critical underlying problem that parents are not effectively engaged to utilize non-medication treatments and serve an active role in their child's mental health recovery. Psychosocial treatments (e.g. parenting skills training to manage aggressive behaviors) are evidence-based interventions that are poorly utilized in community care. The Maryland Medicaid program developed a pediatric Antipsychotic Pre-Authorization Program that requires providers to make at least one psychosocial treatment referral in order to obtain medication approval. This program was shaped by strong input from parents, health experts, and child serving agency administrators to promote psychosocial treatment referral, but it does not provide any Family-centered services to improve treatment utilization. Objectives: We propose to link the Antipsychotic Pre-Authorization Program with a Family Navigator Service. The investigators will examine if Navigator Services improve parent empowerment, support, and satisfaction with child services. The investigators will also assess if Navigator Services are associated with improved psychosocial service utilization, improved child functioning, and lower likelihood of medication increases (higher dose or addition of another medication). The investigators' long term objective is to develop a Family Navigator model that is highly portable, amenable for use in underserved areas, addresses the needs of low income families with young children, and promotes evidence-based mental health care. Methods: The investigators will conduct a randomized trial of a telephone Family Navigator Service versus usual care for 240 Medicaid insured youth 10 years old who are approved for antipsychotic medication treatment. The Family Navigator is a parent who has experienced their own child's mental illness. Navigators will provide support, information on psychosocial treatment options, and options to address barriers to care. The investigators will assess family-centered outcomes at baseline and 90 days (medication re-authorization). The investigators will use generalized linear mixed effects models with the appropriate link functions to assess whether there is a significant difference in improvement from baseline to the post-treatment assessment on the outcome variables between the Family Navigator condition and treatment as usual condition. A significant interaction between time and study condition would support the hypothesis that a Family Navigator will improve parent and child outcomes.