Do you help families with complex mental health issues where relational processes fuel the maintenance of problems?Have you ever encountered parents/carers who express “We Don’t Need Your Help, But Will You Please Fix Our Child?”When families access mental health support they are seeking expert advice during periods of heightened emotions and concerning behaviours. Many complex factors contribute to symptom development including genetics and their broader family and social environment. However, parents can contribute to sustainable improvements in their child’s mental health and wellbeing by adjusting how they interact with their child. Yet even when young people, parent/carers and other family members are agreeing to attend sessions, it is often difficult to shift the focus from discussing how to “fix” the problems of one child versus expanding the parent/carers view to consider their possible part in the child’s symptoms without risking them dropping out of therapy. On one side of the dilemma, the parents may feel relieved that a professional is willing to join them in their efforts to fix their child. On the flip side, the attention to the child’s difficulties may lay a heavy burden on the child for taking on the responsibility for change. It may also leave uncovered the underlying relational process that fuels the maintenance of problems; so that symptom relief is either short lived or the problem focus shifts to another member of the family or system/context (ie school).The Parent Hope Project is a research-based manualised parent/systems clinical intervention program – to improve treatment outcomes for children & young people with complex mental health presentations. The manual includes a 6 session, individualised coaching program for parents who have a child who is struggling with mental health and/or social/behavioural issues. An optional introduction and review session can be included. The program is designed to provide parents with fresh awareness and guiding principles to optimise the way they support their child’s wellbeing. It is not a parent education program where the clinician/coach instructs the parent about how to manage their child. Instead it aims to facilitate parent awareness and develop internal agency – to discover their own solutions. It is not directed at fixing the child, nor is it mental health psycho-education. Rather it focuses on the parent awareness of their interactions with their child and on the parent changing what is in their control. The clinician/coach shares ideas and principles rather than prescribing what the parent should do. Parents are supported to manage their feelings and reactions towards their struggling child and to consider their role in encouraging their children’s potential for healthy development. A repeated idea in this program is that when parents shift their energies away from trying to fix or change their child and invest in what is in their control as parents, new hopeful pathways open up. The manualised program is the outcome of research and subsequent use with many parents in Australian Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) settings. The research focused on how a parents’ involvement in their child/adolescent’s treatment influenced their perception of how they can be helpful in their child’s recovery? The strongly emergent theme was the relationship between parents’ hope and agency/self-efficacy. Parents who remained more passive in expecting expert helpers to fix their child, experienced reduced hope months after finishing the program. When parents positively changed their interaction with their child, they felt a more sustained hopefulness. Parents actively involved in changing themselves as part of their child’s treatment, experience increased hope and effectiveness in contributing to their child’s recovery.
PARENT HOPE PROJECT: Clinical intervention program for children, parents and families with complex mental health presentations
Description:
OPD Points: 10
Key Learning Objectives / Outcomes:
Workshop outline:Introducing Parent Coach TrainingResearch and the Development of the Parent Hope ProjectParents developing agency Vs dependency on expertsFamily Systems Understanding of Symptom Development in ChildrenThe manuals and a family systems treatment approachRecruiting parentsStage 1(sessions 1 -3) Stepping Back: Observations and awarenessSession 1 – Promoting dependence or independence?Session 2 – Where is your energy directed?Session 3 – Considering parents levels of reaction/self-regulationStage 2 (sessions 4 – 6) Stepping UpSession 4 – What is in my control? What is my "I" position?Session 5 – Stepping up in connection Session 6 – Big-picture change requires patienceExtra sessionsThe introductory session and optional surveysExtension questions