The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effect of the Family Talk Preventive Intervention compared to service as usual for families where a parent has mental illness. Participants are the parent with a mental illness receiving treatment from a secondary mental health service within the last two years from inclusion, their youngest child aged 7-17 years and the other parent of this child. The main questions it aims to answer are: Is Family Talk superior to service as usual regarding improving? * The child's level of functioning * The parent's sense of competence * Family functioning Participants will undergo interviews and fill out questionnaires. Half will be randomized to Family Talk and receive a manualized, family-based intervention of approximately 8 conversations with a trained, Family Talk interventionist. The other half will be randomized to service as usual which is normally two conversations with a professional in the mental health sector. The researchers will compare the two groups on child's level of functioning, parental sense of competence and family functioning.
Children of parents with mental illness are at increased risk for mental illness themselves and therefore interventions aimed at mitigating this risk are important. The Family Talk Preventive Intervention was developed by William Beardslee in the 1980's for families with parental depression but has been widely used to treat families with other mental health conditions as well. Nevertheless, only few high-quality clinical trials exist, and the results are inconclusive. The objective of this clinical trial is to test the effect of Family Talk Preventive Intervention compared to service as usual for families where a parent has mental illness and receiving treatment from a secondary mental health service within the last two years from inclusion. Participants are the parent with a mental illness, their youngest child aged 7-17 years and the other parent of this child. The hypothesis is that Family Talk will be superior to service as usual in improving the child's level of functioning, the parent's sense of competence and family functioning at 4 moths follow-up. Participants will undergo interviews and fill out questionnaires at baseline, four- and twelve months follow-up assessments. Half of the families will be randomized to Family Talk and receive a manualized, family-based intervention of approximately 8 conversations with a trained, Family Talk interventionist. The other half will be randomized to service as usual which is normally two conversations with a professional in the mental health sector. The researchers will compare the two groups on child's level of functioning, parental sense of competence and family functioning and other measures including child's quality of life, communication in the family and parental personal recovery.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
800
This is a clinician facilitated, psychoeducational preventive intervention that includes on average 8 sessions designed to improve family communication and understanding of parental mental illness, improve interpersonal relationships, and promote child resilience and utilization of social support. An important tool throughout the intervention is the logbook which the clinician uses for taking notes with each family. The logbook prescribes the planned topics to be covered in each session and the contents of the sessions are noted in the logbook by the clinicians.
Mental Health Services in the Capital Region
Hellerup, Denmark
Change in Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS)
A clinician rated measurement to asses general functioning in children. Information is obtained from both the child and the parents. Scale from 1-100. High score indicates better the functioning.
Time frame: Assessment at baseline, 4 months and 12 months after baseline.
Change in Family Assessment Device (FAD) (Parent-rated)
A 60 item parent report questionnaire assessing each individual's perception of his or her family functioning. The FAD is based on a comprehensive sociological theory about different functions of a family. Scale from 1-4. Low score represents better outcome.
Time frame: Assessment at baseline, 4 months and 12 months after baseline.
Change in Parenting Sense of Competency (PSOC)
A 16 item parent report questionnaire assessing overall parenting sense of competence. Each item rated on a 6-point Likert scale. Total scale from 16-96. A higher score indicates a higher parenting sense of competency.
Time frame: Assessment at baseline, 4 months and 12 months after baseline.
Change in Beck's Youth Inventories (BYI-II)
A 99 item self report measure consisting of 5 subscales to assess symptoms of Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Disruptive behaviour and Self-concept in children. Higher scores are associated with negative affect.
Time frame: Assessment at baseline, 4 months and 12 months after baseline.
Change in Parent-Child Communication (Child-rated)
Questionnaire assessing communication between the child and the mentally ill parent. A 10 item questionnaire for children ages 8-12 and a 19 item questionnaire for children ages 13-17. Each item rated on a 6-point Likert scale. A higher score indicates better communication.
Time frame: Assessment at baseline, 4 months and 12 months after baseline.
Change in Response to parents' mood
A 4-questions multiple-choice questionnaire administered to the child assessing the child's reaction to the parents' mood.
Time frame: Assessment at baseline, 4 months and 12 months after baseline.
Change in parental recovery (Brief INSPIRE-O)
A 5 item self-report questionnaire completed by the parents assessing personal recovery. Each item rated on a score from 0-100. A higher score indicates better recovery.
Time frame: Assessment at baseline, 4 months and 12 months after baseline.
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