Villagrana Margarita
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Avenue, Suite 720, Phoenix, AZ 85004-0693,
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2010 May 1;32(5):691-697. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.01.005.
Caregivers serve as gatekeepers for children while in the child welfare system, but few studies have focused on the caregiver and the factors that influence the use of mental health services for the children under their care. The purpose of this study was to examine the child's mental health need, the caregiver's level of stress, depression, and social support, and the utilization of mental health services by children using the three most common types of caregivers in the child welfare system (i.e., birth parent, relative caregiver, and foster parent). Data comes from the Patterns of Care (POC) study of five public sectors of care. The present study examined parents/caregivers and youth from the child welfare sector. Findings suggest that while birth parents were more likely to endorse more risk factors for themselves, and the children under their care had a higher level of mental health need, they were the least likely to utilize mental health services for the children under their care. Implications for the child welfare and mental health systems are discussed.
在儿童福利系统中，照顾者充当着儿童的守门人，但很少有研究关注照顾者以及影响其照顾下儿童使用心理健康服务的因素。本研究的目的是调查儿童的心理健康需求、照顾者的压力水平、抑郁程度和社会支持情况，以及儿童福利系统中三种最常见的照顾者类型（即亲生父母、亲属照顾者和寄养父母）照顾下的儿童对心理健康服务的利用情况。数据来自五个公共护理部门的护理模式（POC）研究。本研究调查了儿童福利部门的父母/照顾者和青少年。研究结果表明，虽然亲生父母更有可能认可自身存在更多风险因素，且他们照顾下的儿童有更高的心理健康需求，但他们最不可能为其照顾下的儿童使用心理健康服务。文中讨论了对儿童福利和心理健康系统的启示。
