Recruiting

Family Navigator Plus

Sponsor:

Northwestern University

Code:

NCT06978959

Conditions

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

FN+ Intervention

Study Details

Brief summary:

The investigators have designed a 5-week Family Navigator Plus (FN+) educational program to support foster parents in better understanding their youth's mental health needs and in finding mental health services. The purpose of this interventional study is to assess the the program's acceptability (e.g., satisfaction, barriers to participation, and burden), utility (e.g., how useful foster parents found the program to be), and feasibility (e.g., number referred who meet eligibility, time to complete assessments, self-reported feasibility). The investigators hypothesize that our program will be acceptable, useful, and feasible for foster parents of youth with mental health needs.

Conditions

Intervention

Study ID

NCT06978959

Start date

Jan 12, 2026

Status verified date

Jan, 2026

Completion date

Dec 31, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Aug 31, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Foster parent of a youth between the ages of 6 to 17 with mental health needs
  • Parent adopted child from foster care
  • Living in Illinois, United States
  • English or Spanish speaking
  • Has access to internet and videoconferencing

Exclusion Criteria:

\- Participated in the FN+ Focus Groups or PROACTIVE Parent Pilot Study

Study Design

Enrollment

12 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Foster Parents

Participants will consist of adult (age 18 and older) foster parents of youth between the ages of 6 and 17 with mental health needs. Participants will be located in Illinois, and be either English or Spanish speaking. Participants will attend a 5-week educational program (one session per week) that aims to support them in understanding child behaviors, finding and access mental health services, communicating with providers, and using technology to find support.

Interventions

FN+ Intervention

Participants will attend 5 one-on-one sessions over the course of 5 weeks; they will meet with a family navigator over video conferencing software (e.g., Zoom). The purpose of each sessions are as follows: 1) Provide an overview of the program and help parents understand their perceptions of child behaviors, 2) Train parents to find, access, and overcome barriers to mental health services, 3) Build parent capacity in understanding how mental health treatment works and how to communicate with providers, 4) Help parents understand the common function of child behaviors, and 5) Train parents to find, evaluate, and use online mental health tools. Participants will complete measures of child symptoms, parent activation, barriers to treatment, and/or satisfaction with the program before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and 3 months after completing the intervention.

Primary outcome measure

  • Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) [ Time Frame: Post-Intervention (Week 5) and 3 Month Follow Up (Week 18) ]
  • Post Session Questionnaire (PsQ) [ Time Frame: After Completing Each Session (Weeks 1 - 5) ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Heather J Risser, PhD

312-848-3019heather.risser@northwestern.edu

Christina L Boisseau, PhD

804-332-1627christina.boisseau@northwestern.edu

Locations

Northwestern University

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611

Contacts

Heather J Risser, PhD

312-848-3019heather.risser@northwestern.edu

Christina L Boisseau, PhD

804-332-1627christina.boisseau@northwestern.edu

Principal Investigator:

Heather J Risser, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

Northwestern University

Last update posted

Jan 27, 2026

Last verified

Jan, 2026

Keywords

  • foster parents
  • family navigator
  • psychoeducation

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Northwestern University on 2026-01-27.