Young Parents Early Intervention Parenting Program
Program Manager: Dr Liz Cuninghame
Program Co-ordinator: Kim Oliver
Description
Young Parents Early Intervention Parenting Program (YPEIPP) is a prevention and early intervention program assisting young parents and their children through a program of information, education and collaboration. It looks at empowering young parents, upskilling service providers in our community that support them in their roles as parents, and encourages a better coordinated shared care approach to meeting the needs of our young parents. YPEIPP has a focus on three Key Outcome
Areas
Child
Workshop education and brief intervention strategies focus on increasing parent capacity to ensure positive child physical, social and emotional development;
Family
Workshop topics aim to increase parent skills and knowledge in parenting, provide a safe family environment, child nutrition, dealing with behavioural problems early in an effective and positive manner, looking at their own physical and emotional health, the importance of family relationships;
Community
increasing community capacity to assist young parents in their parenting role by improving knowledge and skills of GPs and community members in providing parenting advice and early intervention strategies. The Program provides a structure (Parenting Network Meetings) that facilitates improved communication, working relationships and coordination between the various levels of health and related service providers.
Division GP Support – How we can help you ?
GP Education & Training
The Young Parents Early Intervention Parenting Project (YPEIPP) will facilitate a GP Continuing Professional Development education event to provide GPs with practical knowledge and skills to deliver time-limited, effective parenting and behavioural change interventions with patients in the general practice setting. Triple P – Positive Parenting Training will be used as this is evidence based and underpins the Young Parents Parenting Workshop content. This will be a one-off event early in the 3 year program and will provide training to 20 participants, including accreditation. Where spaces are available, local child and parenting service providers will be invited to participate in this training event.
Other Activities
Young Parents Parenting Workshops
YPEIPP will conduct a total of five GP facilitated Young Parents Parenting Workshops per year for the next three years. To increase coverage across the region annual workshops will be held in Nowra, Ulladulla and Bay & Basin with an additional two workshops specifically targeting Koori young parents and young fathers. Workshops will also utilise the services of local professionals to act as co-facilitators in these sessions.
The workshops are FREE and involve two 3hr sessions on consecutive weeks. Workshop topics including: child development, creative play, prevention and management of behaviour problems, early childhood nutrition and safety, local support resources/services. Each participant receives an extensive Parenting Resource Folder and Creative Play Pack. Limited childcare and transport will be available.
All participants need to register to attend. If you would like to register a patient or client,
Please refer to Events for upcoming workshops.
One-on-One Parenting Assistance
Time-limited one-on-one parenting support will be offered to young parents identified in workshops as requiring additional support to implement behaviour modification strategies. An appropriately qualified early childhood teacher or child psychologist will be contracted to provide this component of the Program which provides funding for up to 16 young parents per year.
This intervention will include an initial 1hr face-to-face assessment followed by either:
- 2.5 hrs of support to assist access of young parent into existing local services/programs specifically designed for more intensive child behaviour problem support. OR if not available or appropriate:
- 3 x 1 hour sessions - face-to-face or telephone support - for support with minor to moderate isolated child behaviour problems.
At end of process parents requiring more intensive ongoing support will be referred into an appropriate service, all others will be provided with support contacts for future reference if required.
Young Parents Parenting Network Meeting - Strengthening & Maintaining Community Collaborative Links
The YPEIPP facilitates ongoing quarterly parenting network meetings at the Division office. This group of local child, family and parenting professionals are invited to participate in these meetings to provide valuable input and guidance into the development and implementation of all YPEIPP activities. These meetings also provide opportunity for health and related parenting professionals to share information on their service and programs available.