Center for Disabilities Studies : School Age Initiatives : Family Education & Support Project
Family Education & Support Project
Website
This project was funded through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Real Choice for System Change grant awarded to Delaware Division of Child Mental Health Services. The University of Delaware’s Center for Disabilities Studies created a web-based curriculum to provide helpful information on social, emotional and behavioral health problems in youth for parents/caregivers and also for the children/youth. The program can be used in individual family sessions or multifamily groups as an adjunct for families starting out or already active in treatment. The curriculum can also be used in a school setting by counselors, social workers, psychologists, nurses, etc. Anyone can benefit from the website.
History of Our Project
The Delaware Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health identified the absence of effective, comprehensive and system-wide family psychoeducation as a critical gap in Delaware’s statewide public system of children’s behavioral healthcare. Met with this challenge, the Children’s Department’s Division of Child Mental Health partnered with the Delaware Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, the State’s Medicaid Office, and the University of Delaware’s Center for Disabilities Studies to create a consumer/family-driven manualized family psychoeducation program.
Goals
The project goals have been to develop, pilot and disseminate a psychoeducation program relating to children’s mental illnesses and severe emotional and behavioral disturbances for statewide and public children’s behavioral health system-wide use. Project Outcomes: Children living in the most integrated community setting appropriate to their individual needs. Families becoming full partners with professionals Improved functioning for children and easing their transition to adulthood.
For more information
Michael Partie
302-831-8374
mpartie@udel.edu