sharing learning and best practices between professionals working with young children in residential...
TRANSCRIPT
SHARING LEARNING AND BEST PRACTICES BETWEEN PROFESSIONALS WORKING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN IN RESIDENTIAL CARE:
ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION Dora Pereira, PhD & Isabel Silva, PhDFaculty of Psychology and Educational SciencesUniversity of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
BASPCAN Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland April 13, 2015
Isabel’s home
Dora’s home
Our University
University of Coimbra
Portuguese context• Temporary Residential Care – Provides care during the period needed
for the case assessment and the definition of a life plan for the child or young person. This transitory care period is of more or less 6 months, providing the environment and the basic conditions to overcome the danger situation.
• Children enter a Temporary Residential Care Centre when they are in a danger situation (when their development will get seriously compromised if they continue where they are – need for urgent protection), following an order given by Local Commissions for Protection of Children and Young Persons (when parents gave consent) or by the court.
• Workers on those centres doesn’t have specific care training, and on the majority of situations they have a low scholar graduation. Mostly females, they do their work based on their own parental models.
Overview • Introduction• Parenting assessment in residential context
• Main references• Exercise• Practical cues for intervention
• Carer’s skills development in residential context• The Incredible Years Programme• Exercise
Parenting Assessment: main theoretical references
Process model of the determinants of parenting (Belsky, 1984; Belsky & Vondra, 1989)
Attachment theory(Ainsworth,1989; Bowlby, 1969; Main, 1995)
Ecological Model(Bronfenbrenner, 1999)
Systemic Epistemology
Assessment on residential care
Risk assessment(protection)
#Parenting capacities assessment
(change)
Pereira & Alarcão, 2013
Parenting Behavior Functional Model (Pereira, 2014)
Synchronic Axis
Diachronic Axis
Parenting skills
Mediating processes
Parental Capacity
Relational modifiers
Individual Psychological
StructureContextual modifiers
How to effectively assess parenting capacities and skills in a context where parents-child interaction becomes much more
limited?
Do… Don’t …
… Promote parent’s participation on child daily life
… Promote “visits”
… Observe interactions … Just interview
… Work with professionals from other services
… Keep your door closed…
… Take time do assess … Jump to definitive conclusions from one single event
… Integrate past, present and future … Keep focused on the past or on the most recent event
CONTEXT
1FAMILY AND SOCIAL
CONTEXT
CHILD
2CHILD’S HEALTH AND
DEVELOPMENT
PARENTS-CHILD RELATION
3ATTACHMENT
4PARENTING SKILLS
PARENTS
5IMPULSE CONTROL
6RESPONSIBILITY RECOGNITION
7PERONAL FACTORS THAT
AFFECT PARENTING CAPACITIES
8SOCIAL SUPPORT
NETWORK
9SERVICES INTERVENTIONS
HISTORY
PARENTING
CAPACITIES
EVALUATION
GUIDE
(0-5)
Multi Methods (direct
observation, home visits, interviews,
contact with other
professionals)Sources (parents,
child, other family members,
professionals)Contexts (in and out residential
care; ex: medical appointments)
FAMILY AND SOCIAL CONTEXT
What are the major strenghts and weaknesses on the different daily life areas, such as household, neighboord,
finances, employment,couple relation, imigration ?
CHILD’S HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT How good is child’s health and development ?
ATTACHMENT How secure is child-mother attachment?
PARENTING SKILLS How good are the parental skills?
IMPULSE CONTROL How good are the impulse control capacity?
RESPONSIBILITY RECOGNITION
Does the parent recognizes his/her responsibility on the present situation?
PERSONAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT
PARENTING CAPACITIES
How does the parent’s personal factors (such as mental health problems, intellectual disability, substance abuse or
domestic violence) affect the parental capacities?
SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORK How does the parent’ relates with his/her social network?
SERVICES INTERVENTIONS
HISTORY How is/was the parent’s relation with clinical services ?
Pereira & Alarcão, 2013
Parenting Capacity Profile
Main Resource
Secondary Resource
Main Difficulty
Secondary DifficultyChange Prognosis A: Encouraging
change potentialB: High risk of
becoming a chronic situation
Pereira & Alarcão, 2013
• Apply the 4th dimension – Parenting Skills – to a case of your own professional practice
• Notice what you know and what you don’t
• Do you have enough information to classify this dimension?
Exercise
• Change is a process
• If you don’t recognize that change should occur, you would hardly be involved on such process
• To develop skills, people must have capacity to do it
• So, let’s look for some cues about intervention process with parents
And now…what?
Parenting Capacity
Parenting skills
Parenting Capacity
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
Mediating Processes
Mediating Processes
Mediating Processes
Mediating Processes
Parenting skills
Minim. Adequate Parenting
Social support; Psychoterapeutic
Intervention
Parental education
New carers
- -
+ +
Psychoterapeutic Intervention
Psychoterapeutic Interv. and Parental
education
• Goals: Focuses on strengthening parenting skills to manage problems behaviour among children and to increase children social competence
• One of the most effective and evidenced-based psychosocial intervention programmes, for both the treatment and prevention of conduct disorder in children (3-8 years old) (Webster-Stratton, 2011; Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2006; Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Hammond, 2004)
• Successfully transported to the Portuguese context (Azevedo et al., 2013; Cabral et al., 2009/2010; Webster-Stratton, Gaspar, & Seabra-Santos, 2012)
A little about the Incredible Years Basic Parent Training Programme….
Professor Carolyn Webster-Stratton,
IYP developer
Group Sessions:• 13 weeks (2-hour sessions) of training with the IY (Webster-Stratton,
2000)• Led by two trained professionals in IY• Run in the residential centre, on the day and time best suited for the
group• Make-up sessions
Method & Process:• Focus on cognitive, behaviour & affect, collaborative approach and
skill development through: Group discussion, Video Modeling, Role plays & practice/rehearsal, Weekly assignments; Reading materials; Weekly evaluations
Training Targets:• Play; Involvement; Descriptive Comments• Praise; Rewards• Effective Limit Setting; Clear Commands; Household Rules• Handling misbehaviour; Ignoring; Time-Out; Consequences;
Problem SolvingBottom - use liberally; Top - use selectively
INTERVENTION
Studies show that this is an effective program that:
Increases positive parenting style & Parent/Child Interaction; Praise and effective discipline
Reduces parental use of harsh, inconsistent and unnecessary disciplineDecreases child conduct problems (negative behaviours and
noncompliance) Increases child social competence Research also reports positive outcomes with teachers, nursery staff and foster carers (Bywater et al., 2011; Bywater, Hutchings, Gridley, & Jones, 2011; Hutchings & Bywater, 2013; Linares, Montalto, Li, & Oza, 2006; McDaniel, Braiden, Onyekwelu, Murphy, & Regan, 2011; Nilsen, 2007).
Incredible Years Outcomes
Staff Toolkit
In residential context: challenging child behaviour and carers lack of skills in dealing with them, lead us to delivered the IYP to residential child care workers to improve care staff skills and the relationship with their looked after children.
Exercise• Situation: John (9 years old) would often escape chores
and argues with the care workers and the other residents. One morning the care worker walks in the room at chore time and John is making the bed. Imagine you are the care worker, what would you say to John in this situation?
• Which behaviour do you want to see increase or reduce…• What strategies would you use?
- Retrieve some IY principles - Watch a brief Incredible Years video
To sum it up…• The touchstone for good residential/group care is the
congruence/consistency within and across all levels of agency functioning (Anglin, 2012)
• A practitioner needs to support a child's relationship with his parents, and it is essential to prepare educators and caregivers to meet the demanding and complex challenges the youth exhibited in the group homes (Anglin, 2014)
THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!
COMMENTS & QUESTIONS
For more information, feel free to email:
Dora Pereira | [email protected]
Isabel Silva | [email protected]