A Universal Early Parenting Education Intervention in Community-Based Primary Care Settings: Development and Installation Challenges

Grainne Hickey,Sinead Mcgilloway,Ann Stokes,Yvonne Leckey

doi:10.3390/educsci8040178

Grainne Hickey, Sinead Mcgilloway + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8040178

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Journal: Education Sciences	Publication Date: Oct 20, 2018
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Abstract

Prevention and early intervention programmes, which aim to educate and support parents and young children in the earliest stages of the family lifecycle, have become an increasingly popular policy strategy for tackling intergenerational disadvantage and developmental inequality. Evidence-based, joined-up services are recommended as best practice for achieving optimal outcomes for parents and their children; however, there are persistent challenges to the development, adoption and installation of these kinds of initiatives in community-based primary health care settings. In this paper, we present a description of the design and installation of a multi-stakeholder early parenting education and intervention service model called the Parent and Infant (PIN) programme. This new programme is delivered collaboratively on a universal, area-wide basis through routine primary care services and combines standardised parent-training with other group-based supports designed to educate parents, strengthen parenting skills and wellbeing and enhance developmental outcomes in children aged 0–2 years. The programme design was informed by local needs analysis and piloting to establish an in-depth understanding of the local context. The findings demonstrate that a hospitable environment is central to establishing interagency parenting education and supports. Partnership, relationship-building and strategic leadership are vital to building commitment and buy-in for this kind of innovation and programme implementation. A graduated approach to implementation which provides training/education and coaching as well as organisational and administrative supports for practice change, are also important in creating an environment conducive to collaboration. Further research into the impact, implementation and cost-effectiveness of the PIN programme will help to build an understanding of what works for parents and infants, as well as identifying lessons for the development and implementation of other similar complex prevention and intervention programmes elsewhere. This kind of research coupled with the establishment of effective partnerships involving service providers, parents, researchers and policy makers, is necessary to meeting the challenge of improving family education and enhancing the capacity of family services to help promote positive outcomes for children.

Highlights

Global evidence suggests that 250 million children worldwide will fail to reach their potential due to social and economic adversity and inequality [1]
We identify and describe the processes and strategies that informed the design of the programme and the experiences of stakeholders involved in its installation, with a view to identifying the facilitating and inhibitive factors which influenced both its roll-out and the nature and extent of partnership working in the initial phases of implementation
Three additional subthemes, were identified which relate to the core implementation activities, processes, organisational features, resources and structures which were important to the design and ‘bedding down’ of the Parent and Infant (PIN)

Summary

Introduction

Global evidence suggests that 250 million children worldwide will fail to reach their potential due to social and economic adversity and inequality [1]. Sci. 2018, 8, 178 many countries have developed, or are in the process of developing, policies and initiatives to tackle developmental inequality and disadvantage which are aimed at educating parents in the importance of nurturing their children and promoting mental health and wellbeing in families [2,3]. Evidence suggests that these parent-focused programmes allow children to fulfil their potential and can contribute to better outcomes later in life, including greater educational achievement, better occupational status, reduced reliance on welfare and improved health outcomes, as well as a lower-risk of criminality, antisocial behaviour, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviour, early parenthood and psychopathology [11,12,13]. Intervention and prevention programmes have been found to be cost-effective and substantial social and economic benefits can be generated through effective early intervention [14,15]

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