Marcia Baker,Karol Kumpfer
University of Utah, USA
Title: Cost effectiveness of a new strengthening families program 7-17 years DVD for reducing oppositional defiant disorders and adolescent behavioral health disorders
Biography
Biography: Marcia Baker,Karol Kumpfer
Abstract
Background: Oppositional Defiant Disorders have increased in children and mental health disorders including SUDs in adolescents. Unfortunately lower SES parents are spending less time with these high risk children. This session will begin with a review of family risk, protection and resilience factors that make family based interventions the most successful prevention programs according to many independent reviews (e.g., the Oxford University Cochrane Reviews, NIDA, UNODC, WHO). The most effective family interventions for prevention and early intervention will be presented based on authors’ reviews for last 20 years for our government and United Nations. One of the most effective is the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), a family skills training program where in 7 to 14 weekly group classes, parents and youth have separate classes first and then a joint practice session which teach parenting, family and youth social skills. SFP is cost effective at $11 saved per dollar spent, yet costly to administer-$500 to $1000/family for a 7-14 week group. Recent epigenetic 10-year longitudinal studies have found that SFP can reduce genetically inherited behavioral health disorders related to short alleles of the 5-HTTLPR serotonin gene and the 7-repeat dopamine gene (i.e., diagnosed depression, anxiety, SUDs, HIV, and delinquency) by 50%. Because of these positive results, culturally adapted SFP versions are now in 36 countries with similar positive results to its 14 RCTs, half by independent research teams. Methods: To reduce costs to $5/family, a new universal 10-14 session SFP 7 to 17 Years DVD was created for home and clinic use in English and Spanish audio tracks. It was evaluated with families who completed a confidential online survey to win prizes. A 10-14 session SFP family group version was also created and tested with high-risk families in schools and agencies as a comparison condition in a quasi-experimental repeated measures 2 group×2 (pre-and post-test) design. 21 parent, family and child behavioral outcomes were measured using the SFP questionnaire composed of standardized clinical instruments. Within and between group results were analyzed using 2×2 ANOVAs and compared to the SFP 10- and 14-session norms. Results: Compared to the group version, the Home Use DVD outcomes revealed 18 of 21 statistically significant outcomes and almost as large Cohen’s d effect sizes for parenting (d=.48 vs. 65) and family outcomes (d=.69 vs. .70) but better youth results (d=.54 vs. .48). The best youth results were for the DVD family group version that were better than the EBP SFP 3-16 Years age versions. Conclusions: Because of the positive results on positive parenting, child maltreatment and reduced depression and behavioral disorders, the new DVDs and family group curriculum are being widely disseminated at cost to have a broader behavioral health and public health impact. This presentation could include DVD video clips and interactive role plays, plus questions and answer period.
