Supporting all parents

The pandemic was a time of pronounced disruption for children and parents. While the world has now returned to a semblance of normality, the pandemic’s effects are still being felt, not least through the surge in the number of children reporting mental health challenges.

The child mental health epidemic is placing more pressure on parents, with the impact accentuated in some communities. Research has demonstrated that the mental health of children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds was disproportionately affected during the pandemic.

And things aren’t getting easier. As the pandemic has abated, the cost of living crisis has kicked in, and mental health issues continue to increase. Against that difficult, wider context, it is important for services to be culturally diverse and sensitive enough to work for children of all backgrounds. Parents also need to have access to practitioners who are from, and understand, their communities. With children from diverse ethnic backgrounds the most affected by rising mental health problems in the wake of the pandemic, the need for targeted support for parents in those communities is more pronounced than ever.

Meave Darroux is the Founder of Brilliant Parents, and uses the Triple P programme to support parents from a diverse range of backgrounds across several London boroughs. Working with parents in such a diverse city using Triple P shows the programmes to be a good fit for the parents Meave works with – our programmes are targeted, backed by evidence, and appeal to a broad cohort of parents.

Triple P’s programmes are designed to meet the needs of any family who could benefit from them. This includes offering parents a range of evidence-based strategies and allowing them choice and flexibility in their approach, and supporting practitioners to consider examples of issues that are relevant and culturally sensitive to the parents they are working with. It also means ensuring that courses are accessible to parents for whom English may not be their first language. Triple P programmes are translated by clinicians into more than 22 languages and have been demonstrated to work in trials across a diverse range of cultures in over 30 countries. We know that there is incredible diversity when it comes to the parents and families we work with; many of the challenges those parents face are similar, which is why Triple P is used effectively by practitioners all over the world.

Brilliant Parents works closely with several London Boroughs, including Brent and Hillingdon.

Hillingdon

Brilliant Parents has been offering Triple P programmes in Hillingdon for six years. The Hillingdon workshops, organised in partnership with the council, offer virtual and in-person programmes to local parents, including the 57% Black and Ethnic Minority population.

Speaking on the work she is doing in the borough, Meave said,

“Brilliant Parents has been supporting Hillingdon parents since 2017. Our service is available across the borough, but we pay particular emphasis to those parents residing in the more deprived areas, many of whom are from diverse communities. On occasion, the parents we work with have commented that following the COVID-19 pandemic, their children’s levels of anxiety have increased, which in some cases has led to low school attendance and low achievement. Not surprisingly, the additional burden of possible unemployment, being unable to feed their family or pay their utility bills, can make the job of parenting positively, increasingly challenging.”

One parent from Hillingdon was struggling after moving to the UK not knowing the language and the culture. He decided to reach out to his Local Authority Family Service who helped him and his family. After attending a Triple P Teens course through Brilliant Parents, he has adopted a more positive parenting style and has developed a stronger relationship with his children.

Brent

Brent is a typically diverse borough, with 64% of residents from ethnic minority communities. The challenges facing parents in Brent are varied, but workshops organised by Brilliant Parents in partnership with Triple P are helping families make positive parenting progress.

One social worker working in Brent said that a mother who had attended a Brilliant Parents workshop had found that Triple P was helping her overcome the everyday parenting challenges she was facing. Specifically, she was finding it easier to manage her child’s bedtime routines, and had learnt different strategies to improve her child’s behaviour. Her child’s punctuality was also notably improved, a behaviour change that was noticed by both teachers and the mother herself.

In conclusion, Triple P has been supporting families and services to achieve positive outcomes for over 35 years in 31 countries across the globe. With such a diverse, wide reach, we have shown both that Triple P works and is a welcoming intervention from families across cultures. Over 20 years’ experience in the UK & Ireland Triple P has similarly shown itself to be a successful, core programme supporting a wide and diverse community of parents. For more information on Triple P and our system of programmes please get in touch.