Empowering families: New York State training initiative evaluation

The Parent Empowerment Program, State Initiative (PEP-S.I.) is a training initiative funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health and the Department of Education. It involves the implementation of an education and support program developed by Columbia University to strengthen advocacy and support for parents of children with mental health needs throughout New York State.

PEP-S.I. trained family support workers (FSW) from three geographic regions of NYS (N=59) and evaluated the impact of the Parent Empowerment Training Program (PEP) on their skills, knowledge, and sense of professional effectiveness over a period of six months. FSW's participated in 40 hours of training delivered over five days, ten consultation calls to support their newly acquired skills, and a twelve hour booster session at the end of the six months.

FSW's completed questionnaires assessing job function and satisfaction, skills and knowledge keyed to PEP content, knowledge retention, empowerment in working with families, self efficacy and adherence to the training. Participants were assessed at baseline, at the end of the forty hour training, and six months post training.

Paired t-tests of pre and six month data indicate significant changes in Family Empowerment – Work, Services, and Community (p<.0001); Self Assessment – Engagement, Group, Disorders, and Services (p<.0001); and Self Efficacy (p<.0001). Training module evaluations indicate that the parent empowerment training program is being successfully implemented and has met with a high level of satisfaction.