Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Apr 12, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 11, 2024
Addressing Caregiver Strain: Telebehavioral Health for Caregivers of Children with Behavioral Health Needs
ABSTRACT
Background:
Caregivers for children with behavioral health conditions are at risk for significant strain.
Objective:
This study evaluates the impact of a technology-enabled pediatric and family behavioral health service on caregivers’ strain among a commercially-insured population. We also explore the common symptom clusters of caregiver strain to better understand the caregiver presentation to inform future care planning.
Methods:
We examined common caregiver strain symptom clusters and changes in caregiver strain over the course of their child’s virtual behavioral health care between 2021-2023.
Results:
The majority of children were White/Caucasian (60.8%), female (53.6%), and aged 5-9 years (33.7%). Families fall broadly into four groups based on what most drives caregiver strain: those with 1) disrupted family relationships and time interruption; 2) missed work; 3) worried about their child’s future and feel tired and sad; and 4) financial strain. Caregiver strain, which was associated with the child’s disease severity (p<0.001), decreased significantly in all therapeutic groups.
Conclusions:
Virtual family-oriented behavioral health care can improve caregiver strain and reduce family and time disruptions, missed work, and financial strain.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.