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Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care through Family Navigation (ATTAIN NAV)

Summary

ATTAIN NAV was co-designed with caregiver and healthcare partners and delivered by lay navigators to facilitate access to mental health and family support services for school-age children with autism (NIMH R34MH120190).

The Challenge

  • Autistic children have high rates of co-occurring mental health needs, yet they face multi-level barriers to accessing and engaging with needed care.

  • Primary care is an optimal place for early mental health needs identification and referral to mental health care.

  • The Access to Tailored Autism Integrated Care (ATTAIN) study co-created an integrated mental health care model for autistic children in primary care.

  • Pilot outcomes indicated high feasibility, acceptability, and utility but more specific and tailored implementation support was needed to expedite and secure engagement with mental health services.

The Approach

  • To address the noted challenges, the ATTAIN NAV study adapted a family navigation intervention for school-age autistic children with co-occurring mental health needs.

  • ATTAIN NAV was delivered in weekly sessions over 4 months by trained, lay health navigators, focused on collaborative goal development, motivational interviewing, and problem-solving strategies to promote engagement with health and community services.

  • The impact of ATTAIN NAV was tested in a stepped-wedge, hybrid implementation-effectiveness study.

The Impact

  • A total of 21 primary care providers enrolled; 157
    families were referred via provider or self-referral.
  • A total of 65 families enrolled and 56 families completed
    ATTAIN NAV.
  • Most families were connected to needed or requested
    services and caregivers reported high levels of
    satisfaction and benefit from ATTAIN NAV.

Key Benefits

 TSBM-Clinical.PNG Provided an efficient and effective intervention to secure engagement with needed health and community services for autistic children. Demonstrated
 TSBM-Clinical.PNG Strengthened caregiver advocacy skills and service navigation knowledge. Demonstrated
TSBM_Community.PNG Family navigation showed potential to help address disparities in access to mental health and community-based care. Demonstrated
 TSBM_Policy.PNG Findings can be used as a blueprint for healthcare policies considering non-traditional mental health providers as essential members of the care teams.  Potential

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Download the ATTAIN NAV TSBM Impact Profile Here!