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Clinician-Based Cognitive Psychoeducational Intervention for Families (Family Talk)

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

The Clinician-Based Cognitive Psychoeducational Intervention is intended for families with parents with significant mood disorder. The intervention consists of 6-11 sessions that include separate meetings with parents and children, family meetings, and telephone contacts or refresher meetings at 6- to 9-month intervals. Sessions are conducted by trained psychologists, social workers, and nurses. The core elements of the intervention are (1) an assessment of all family members, (2) teaching information about affective disorders and risks and resilience in children, (3) linking information to the family's life experience, (4) decreasing feelings of guilt and blame in children, and (5) helping children to develop relationships within and outside the family to facilitate their independent functioning in school and in activities outside of the home. In family meetings, parents talk about their own sessions, their treatment, and how they are working to build resilience and protect their children.

Goal / Mission

The goal of this program is to provide information about mood disorders to parents, equip parents with skills they need to communicate this information to their children, and open dialogue in families about the effects of parental depression.

Impact

Parents in the program scored better in their reports of child-related behavior and attitude changes of parental illness than parents who received a group-format presentation. Children in the program scored higher on measures of improved understanding of parental mood disorder than children who received a group-format lecture.

Results / Accomplishments

Outcomes of the program include the following:

The parents in the clinician-facilitated intervention group (experimental group) averaged 2.7 more in mean scores in child-related behavior and attitude changes of parental illness than did the parents in the comparison group (who received a group-format presentation), M = 7.0, SD = 3.0 vs. M = 4.3, SD = 2.7, effect size = 0.87; X2(1) = 52.8, p < 0.0001. The number of reported changes increased across the four follow-up assessment points up to 4.5 years after the intervention, X2(3) = 88.6, p < 0.0001.

Children in the clinician-facilitated intervention group (experimental group) scored an average 0.7 points higher on improved understanding of parental mood disorder than did children in the comparison condition (who received a group-format lecture), M = 3.0, SD = 2.1 vs. M = 2.3, SD = 2.1; effect size = 0.33; X2(1) = 5.0; p < 0.05.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
FAMpod
Primary Contact
Topics
Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders
Community / Social Environment
Organization(s)
FAMpod
Source
SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
For more details
Target Audience
Children, Families
Impact DuPage