A family navigator model for foster parents to promote youth mental health wellness: Study development and protocol

Background Children in foster care experience disproportionately high rates of mental illness, yet most do not receive timely or evidence-based mental health treatment. Foster parents play a critical role in treatment engagement but face substantial structural and informational barriers to accessing care. Objective This study describes the development, human-centered design, open and pilot randomized controlled trial of Family Navigator Plus (FN+) , a telehealth-delivered family navigation intervention designed to increase foster parent activation and reduce barriers to mental health treatment access for children in foster care. Methods FN+ is a 5-week, manualized intervention delivered via telehealth by trained community health workers. The study includes three phases: 1) human-centered design interviews with foster parents, caseworkers, and providers; 2) an open trial ( N = 12) to refine the intervention; and 3) a pilot randomized controlled trial ( N =60) comparing FN+ to an attention control condition focused on youth civic engagement. The primary outcome is foster parent activation in the child’s mental health care. Conclusions This study will provide critical feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness data for a scalable, cost-effective approach to improving mental health care access for children in foster care.