When families first present for behavioral health care, they often have more questions than answers. What is happening? Why is this happening? And what will help? Providing clear, evidence-informed psychoeducation can foster engagement, build trust, empower families, and lay the foundation for effective care.
What Psychoeducation Is
Psychoeducation provides evidence-informed information about (1) youth well-being, (2) the role of health behaviors in promoting physical and behavioral health, (3) behavioral health concerns, and (4) the rationale and expectations for treatment. This practice is usually provided early in the course of treatment when a provider is connecting with a family and setting the stage for treatment. Youth, caregivers, teachers, and others (e.g., peers, siblings, caseworkers) involved in a young person’s life can benefit from Psychoeducation.
Why Psychoeducation Is Important
Psychoeducation is useful for several reasons. First, it focuses on strengths and resilience factors (e.g., persistence, work ethic, or a strong social support system) and how families can leverage these strengths to promote optimal well-being in youth. Psychoeducation also provides a better understanding of the concerns, such as what causes a concern and what it looks like in youth. This helps normalize and validate the experiences of youth and families. In addition, Psychoeducation is useful because it explains why the recommended services are helpful. Finally, by providing information about the “nuts and bolts” of treatment (e.g., when, how long, who will be involved), the youth, family, or others know what to expect. By engaging the youth and family in a collaborative conversation early in treatment, Psychoeducation promotes empowerment by encouraging families to make informed decisions about their care.
A quick search of the research reveals that Psychoeducation is one of the most frequently used practices in gold standard treatments across behavioral health concerns (see How MAP Equips below). For example, psychoeducation for youth is included in the majority of protocols for the treatment of depression and traumatic stress symptoms and appears frequently in anxiety, autism, and trauma protocols for caregivers. The evidence points us to include Psychoeducation in treatment plans for youth behavioral health concerns.
The Role of Health Behaviors in Psychoeducation
Health behaviors are actions that we can take to promote, maintain, or regain physical and mental well-being. Examples of health behaviors are sleep, nutrition, physical activity, and social engagement. Introducing health behaviors as vital daily behaviors provides a framework for promoting general health and well-being in youth. These behaviors can then be discussed as potential factors related to behavioral health concerns and targets in treatment. For example, sleep deprivation is associated with depression, so targeting sleep hygiene may improve mood in youth. For more information on health behaviors, see the links in Resources below.
How to Adapt Psychoeducation
Psychoeducation can be tailored in several ways to meet a youth or family’s needs. First, psychoeducation can be adapted to a youth’s developmental level. This may include information about what a concern looks like. For example, depression may present as irritability in a younger youth. Older youth with depression may experience hopelessness and negative thoughts about themselves. Similarly, when discussing sleep hygiene (i.e., daily sleep behaviors) with a family, developmentally relevant information regarding expert suggestions for sleep duration can be provided (e.g., 8-10 hours in teens versus 10-13 hours for a preschool youth).
The explanation for how treatment is beneficial and who will be involved can depend on a youth’s developmental level, too. For example, treatment for a preschool youth with disruptive behaviors likely consists of guiding the caregiver to change their interactions with the youth (e.g., how instructions or commands are given, consequences for misbehavior). In comparison, treatment for a teen with disruptive behaviors may include more problem-solving and cognitive work with the teen.
Psychoeducation should also be adapted based on the audience receiving it. For example, in explaining to a teacher how Attention problems present in a middle school student, a provider may focus on difficulties with completion of assignments or distracting the class with impulsive comments and getting up from their seat. When explaining Attention problems to a caregiver, the provider may focus on a messy room, necessity of multiple directives to brush teeth, etc. In both cases, the symptoms involve difficulty with organization, impulsivity, and distractibility. The difference is in how they present in various settings.
How MAP Equips Providers to Deliver Psychoeducation
The MAP system, one of the products offered at PracticeWise, can support providers in delivering evidence-informed psychoeducation. MAP stands for Managing and Adapting Practice and is a toolkit that helps providers select, build, organize, and implement behavioral health treatment based on the most up-to-date research.
The research database, PWEBS, contains almost 2,000 peer-reviewed papers and more than 3,400 protocols, representing the scope of evidence for youth behavioral health treatments. A quick search of PWEBS reveals that Psychoeducation is one of the most frequently used practices in gold standard treatments for youth with anxiety, depression, and trauma, among others. PWEBS does not specify the order in which these practices should be delivered. However, Treatment Pathways do provide suggestions for sequencing these practices in the “Connect” phase of treatment based on the protocols included in PWEBS.
In the MAP library of Practice Guides (i.e, 2-page, step-by-step instructions on how to deliver a particular strategy), you can find Psychoeducation for a number of common behavioral health target areas, including Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Attention, and Disruptive Behaviors. You can also find Caregiver and Child versions. These Practice Guides (PGs) can guide you in helping the family build an understanding of what causes these behavioral health concerns, what they look like in youth, and what strategies can be helpful. You will also find an Adapt to Problem PG that provides a template for delivering psychoeducation about other concerns for which specific PGs are not yet available (e.g., Autism, Substance Use). The Health Promotion PGs—Caregiver and Child versions cover how to provide psychoeducation about specific health behaviors, including sleep, nutrition, physical activity, and screen use.
If you would benefit from a more comprehensive explanation of the components of Psychoeducation and guidance on how to provide it, PracticeWise recently added new On-Demand Learning courses for general Psychoeducation, including health behaviors, and several target areas (Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Disruptive Behaviors).
Resources
- Learn more about the MAP system
- Browse the On-Demand library for courses on Psychoeducation
- Previous blogs available from PracticeWise that focus on health behaviors related to sleep, nutrition, screen time, and physical activity
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About the Author
Janelle Wagner, Ph.D., serves on the Professional Development Team as an Associate Trainer and Senior Consultant for PracticeWise. Learn more about Dr. Wagner on the PracticeWise team page.
