Engaging families into child mental health treatment: updates and special considerations.
OBJECTIVE
The current paper reviews recent findings regarding how to conceptualize engagement and factors influencing engagement, treatment attendance rates, and interventions that work.


METHODS
Research related to the definition of engagement, predictors of engagement and treatment termination, attendance rates, and engaging interventions are summarized as an update to the McKay and Bannon (2004) review.


RESULTS
Despite ongoing advances in evidence-based treatments and dissemination strategies, engaging families into mental health treatment remains a serious challenge. Within the last several years, a number of technological advances and interventions have emerged to address this problem. Families with children who present disruptive behavior challenges and symptoms of trauma are considered in terms of the unique barriers they experience regarding engagement in treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Potential solutions to increase treatment utilization and further research in this area are discussed.
Gopalan
Geetha
G
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
Goldstein
Leah
L
Klingenstein
Kathryn
K
Sicher
Carolyn
C
Blake
Clair
C
McKay
Mary M
MM