Our previous work has demonstrated that a significant percentage of mothers who bring their children to mental health clinics have high rates of untreated DSM IV disorders themselves. Most do not accept a referral for care, a phenomena that has negative effects on the child's well being and his/her treatment. This research enhancement proposal, linked to our funded Social Work Research Center is an expansion of a funded research enhancement project (MK Shear, PI). This proposal will seek to determine why mothers with diagnosable disorders do not seek or accept mental health care. We will use ethnographic methods, supplemented by standardized scales, to achieve a greater understanding of the ways mothers see their lives, their symptoms, and available treatment systems. We will also compare the perceptions of mothers presenting their children to a mental health center to those presenting to a social agency to determine whether differences in agency orientation or level of congruity between clinician and maternal perceptions play a role in engagement. We propose to use the increased understanding of maternal needs, preferences, and characteristics discovered in this way to develop and test a brief psychoeducational intervention to increase maternal acceptance and engagement with the services they need. This study addresses a widespread serious unmet need and a public health problem impacting significant numbers of women and children living in disadvantaged communities. It should contribute to our knowledge base about help-seeking behaviors and the barriers experienced by low-income mothers of disturbed children, and facilitate the application of efficacious treatments to disadvantaged populations in the community.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Resource-Related Research Projects (R24)
Project #
5R24MH061712-03
Application #
6528816
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-CRB-C (03))
Program Officer
Oliver, Karen Anderson
Project Start
2000-09-30
Project End
2004-08-31
Budget Start
2002-09-01
Budget End
2004-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$386,941
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
053785812
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Copeland, Valire Carr; Snyder, Kimberly (2011) Barriers to mental health treatment services for low-income African American women whose children receive behavioral health services: an ethnographic investigation. Soc Work Public Health 26:78-95
Rishel, Carrie W; Greeno, Catherine G; Anderson, Carol (2008) The relationship between maternal and child symptom change in community mental health. Community Ment Health J 44:289-93
Greeno, Catherine G; Colonna-Pydyn, Courtney; Shumway, Martha (2007) The need to adapt standardized outcomes measures for community mental health. Soc Work Public Health 23:125-38
Rishel, Carrie W; Greeno, Catherine G; Marcus, Steven C et al. (2006) Effect of maternal mental health problems on child treatment response in community-based services. Psychiatr Serv 57:716-9
Anderson, Carol M; Robins, Cynthia S; Greeno, Catherine G et al. (2006) Why lower income mothers do not engage with the formal mental health care system: perceived barriers to care. Qual Health Res 16:926-43