What are the benefits of a parent-to-parent mental health treatment approach? How do/could their children benefit from this treatment approach?

A Medicaid-funded parent-to-parent service called the Parent Support Partner (PSP) program was developed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). PSP services are available statewide to parents whose children are identified with serious emotional disturbance (SED) or intellectual developmental disabilities (I/ DD), including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). SED is defined as a child or adolescent with a history or current behavioral or emotional disorder consistent with current mental health diagnostic classification systems (MDHHS, 2022). ACMH provides state-level PSP certification, training, and monthly technical assistance (i.e. coaching). PSPs are employed by the Pre-Paid Inpatient Health Plan, Community Mental Health Service Providers, or contract providers and work under clinical supervision, who are supported with training and periodic roundtable meetings. Several validated instruments have been used to measure the impact of a child's pervasive diagnosis on the family within parent groups (e.g. Pediatric Inventory for Parents; Streisand et al., 2001). Other instruments within the literature measure parents' self-efficacy and competence (e.g. Parental Sense of Competence; Gilmore & Cuskelly, 2009). However, none have evaluated components specific to the service itself. This study aimed to examine the factor structure and internal consistency of the PSP Outcome Tool (MDHHS, 2016). Specifically, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to examine the underlying structure of the tool (i.e. construct validity) without a priori assumptions about the relationships among items. However, it was anticipated that the EFA might support out- comes associated with PSP services (Bridging, Collaboration, Developing Direction/ Determination, Empowering) as identified by the expert team of clinicians who developed the tool's items from PSP training session goals.