Pilot Study of the Vermont Family Based Approach in Primary Care Pediatrics

To enhance the health of our communities, we need approaches to healthcare delivery that focus on the entire family, recognize the central role of emotional and behavioral health in relation to all health, use evidence-based health promotion in addition to evidence based treatment of existing problems, and intervene early in children's life.

The VFBA is a public health framework for evidence-based health promotion, prevention, and treatment that is delivered from the family perspective and emphasizes emotional and behavioral health.

The study was a pilot RCT of the VFBA in a primary care pediatrics clinic. The goals of the study were to test whether the VFBA would (1) be feasible in primary care pediatrics and (2) would lead to improved emotional and behavioral health and health-related quality of life or children and parents. Families were recruited at the pediatric clinic and randomized to the VFBA or Control conditions.

The VFBA group received family-based assessment of emotional and behavioral health and family functioning, family wellness coaching, and a menu of cost-free wellness activities, such as parent and child violin instruction, yoga and mindfulness training, and nutrition counseling. Where indicated by results of family-based assessment, families in the VFBA group also received family-based, evidence-based psychotherapy and psychiatric care. Families in the Control group received pediatric primary care, as usual.

Inclusion criteria

• Families with a 3 - 15 year-old child who receives his/her primary care at the University of Vermont Pediatric Primary Care Clinic

Exclusion criteria

• Families with a target child in the legal custody of the State of Vermont
• Families where the parents' proficiency in English is not sufficient to participate in the protocol without an interpreter