Improving Parent Engagement In Youth Mental Healthcare With Generative AI Tools
How can parents help identify and address their child’s unique behavioral health needs? Join curaJOY at the Shaping AI Summit 2025 event on March 22, where they will explore how to combine parent training, clinician expertise, and generative AI in accessible behavioral healthcare.
A Dilemma That Families Face
It can be difficult for parents to identify what motivates a child to engage in certain behaviors, what triggers tantrums, and the degree of their social-emotional needs. It’s normal for families to want to turn to a behavioral healthcare specialist for help - but what if that help just isn’t available?
This is a dilemma that many parents face, especially those in marginalized or underserved communities. But curaJOY has been exploring a novel solution: combining parent involvement with clinician expertise and generative AI technologies in behavioral healthcare. On March 22, Dr. Geetika Agarwal, clinical psychologist, professor, and BCBA-D, and Jeevan Redd, senior researcher and presenter at curaJOY, will examine their findings in their presentation, The Future of Parent Training with AI: Ethically Integrating UX Research and Feedback Loops for Sustainable, Collaborative Solutions, which will be held as part of the Shaping AI Summit 2025 summit event on BehaviorLive.
Learn more at https://curajoy.org/solutions
The Importance of Parent Engagement in Youth Behavioral Health
Although parent or primary caregiver participation in youth behavioral and mental healthcare is largely understudied, there is evidence that it benefits whole-family wellness. Separate articles in the Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review and the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology underscore the effectiveness of parent involvement and how it can improve patient outcomes.
Ethical Generative AI Tools for Accessible Behavioral Healthcare
curaJOY aims to further address this topic in its presentation, where it will explore a hybrid approach that incorporates a combination of clinician expertise, parent feedback, and generative AI tools.
“Building effective AI solutions in behavioral health requires a thoughtful, ethical approach that integrates Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) principles, User Experience Research (UXR), and the expertise of key stakeholder groups,” explains a spokesperson for the organization. “This presentation emphasizes the vital role of parent and clinician involvement in shaping sustainable, user-centered solutions for behavioral health. It will also identify how feedback loops with key stakeholder groups contribute to the iterative development of ethical, transparent, and effective AI technologies.”
curaJOY highlights the essential role that families will play in this model, allowing all involved parties to address a more diverse range of social-emotional needs. The organization believes that improving parent engagement will foster resilience in behavioral health systems and result in a more communicative and understanding environment in the home, which will be conducive to long-term behavioral health and whole-family wellness.
It makes sense, right? Parents or primary caregivers will spend more time with their kids than the therapist will, so if they’re in the know about what their child needs, they’ll know how to provide ongoing treatment at home. This will also help the child feel more secure, since they’ll have a whole network of support behind them.
AI plays a huge role in making this kind of parent training accessible, too. But don’t be mistaken; it won’t be taking any jobs. Because collaboration with behavioral health professionals remains a crucial component of care, this hybrid approach ensures that the ABA profession continues to be sustainable. In fact, it has the potential to make jobs easier for a lot of clinicians, which means we may even see a reduction in clinical backlogs - and that means access to more timely interventions.
As a non-profit organization that’s been pioneering the field of affordable, culturally relevant behavioral healthcare, curaJOY has been a major player in developing AI technologies that can help underserved children around the world. If you want to learn more or support their cause, you can also visit https://curajoy.org/solutions to read about their latest research.
