Engaging Families into Child Mental Health Treatment: Updates and Special Considerations

Objective: The current paper reviews recent findings regarding how to conceptualize engagement and factors influencing engagement, treatment attendance rates, and interventions that work. Method: Research related to the definition of engagement, predictors of engagement and treatment termination, attendance rates, and engaging interventions are summarized as an update to the McKay and Bannon (2004) review. Results: Despite ongoing advances in evidence-based treatments and dissemination strategies, engaging families into mental health treatment remains a serious challenge. Within the last several years, a number of technological advances and interventions have emerged to address this problem. Families with children who present disruptive behavior challenges and symptoms of trauma are considered in terms of the unique barriers they experience regarding engagement in treatment. Conclusions: Potential solutions to increase treatment utilization and further research in this area are discussed.