Lessons from the Research on Paraprofessionals for Attendant Care in Children’s Mental Health

Abstract

This article summarizes literature about paraprofessionals who assist children or families in the areas of mental health, education, or early childhood education, and focuses on three main questions: How effective are paraprofessionals?; what are the common and appropriate roles and responsibilities of paraprofessionals?; and what qualifications, training, and supervision are needed for paraprofessionals? Implications are inferred for a burgeoning new form of paraprofessional services: attendant care in community based mental health services for children. Lessons from existing literature can help mental health administrators and clinical supervisors at state and local levels to select, train, supervise, and evaluate attendant care workers.

Measuring Individualized Parent Advocate Services in Children’s Mental Health: A Contextualized Theoretical Application

“…Some scholars and experts (cf., Hoagwood et al 2008;Romanelli et al 2009) suggest that family or peer support providers have the potential to effectively help alleviate some of the noted gaps in children's mental health services. Peer support providers are typically paraprofessionals who serve as a bridge between professional providers and their consumers by providing social, emotional, educational, advocacy and resource support to people with challenges similarly experienced by the paraprofessional (Davis et al 2010;Koroloff et al 1994;Walter and Petr 2006). The limited available accounts of peer support providers describe how they assist families in key ways as families try to obtain necessary care from the multi-pronged behavioral health care systems that serve children with serious mental health needs.…”

Randomized evaluation of a single semester transitional mentoring program for first year middle school students: a cautionary result for brief, school-based mentoring programs

“…The use of paraprofessionals in services such as mentoring is consistent with a broader movement in mental health and education (Prinz & Sanders, 2007;Sugai & Horner, 2002). In the case of school-based mentoring, paraprofessionals are individuals who have not received formal training or certification in teaching or helping professions related to education (e.g., social work, counseling, or psychology; Walter & Petr;Wallace, Shin, Bartholomight, & Sahl, 2001).…”

“…Most mentoring programs use paraprofessionals as their primary service providers (Walter & Petr, 2006). The use of paraprofessionals in services such as mentoring is consistent with a broader movement in mental health and education (Prinz & Sanders, 2007;Sugai & Horner, 2002).…”

Parent Advocates in Children’s Mental Health: Program Implementation Processes and Considerations

“…Similar to other recent reviews (cf. Hoagwood et al;Walter and Petr 2006) we found limited peer-reviewed mental health literature describing parent advocate services or how such services are linked to individualized care or improved child and family outcomes. In fact, a 10-year gap appears to exist between the first such studies and what has been published most recently.…”

“…Research by Walter and Petr (2006) that examined the use of paraprofessionals for attendant care in children's mental health suggested that training and supervision are key components to effectively serve children and families, as well as helping to maximize the retention of these individuals. The level of supervision provided to PAs differed greatly between the two counties in this study.…”