title: Does caregiver participation in decision making within child welfare agencies influence children's primary and mental health care service use?
abstract: Many children in contact with child welfare agencies do not receive needed health services. These agencies have used participatory decision making (PDM) practices as a way to increase families' use of recommended services. However, we lack evidence of whether caregiver participation in PDM increases children's use of health services. This study uses a national sample of children involved with child welfare to compare their health service use between those children serve through a PDM practice and those who did not experience it.
  
  
  
  Cross-sectional analyses using the 2009-2010 National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Propensity score analysis accounted for observed selection bias. PDM practice was measured as whether the caregiver was included in decision-making during service planning meetings. Health service use was measured as child's receipt of any primary or mental health care services in the past year. Primary health care need was measured using standardized measures and caseworker report. The sample was comprised of children ages 2-17 with primary or mental health needs in contact with a child welfare agency.
  
  
  
  In the unmatched sample of 1,358 children, 14% were served through a PDM service practice, and 12% had a primary health care and 37% a mental health need. Families served through PDM were also reported by caseworkers as more cooperative during the child welfare investigation, and with fewer reports of domestic violence and agency re-referrals (P < 0.05). Analyses using matched samples showed that for primary health care, 59% of PDM children received services compared with 40% for non-PDM children (P = 0.004). Group differences were not significant for mental health services.
  
  
  
  Lower-risk families were more likely to be served through PDM which was positively associated with child use of primary health services. Inclusion of caregivers in decision making may not be sufficient to overcome barriers to children's mental health service use.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Jolles
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Management, Policy and Community Health, University of Texas, Houston, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wells
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000068216:Child Protective Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D014481:United States
keywords: child mental health; child welfare; propensity score analysis; shared decision making