Parenting intervention for mental health workers

Data for paper published in Frontiers in Psychology June 2022

Data collected to evaluate a novel intervention delivered to mental health workers who are parents employed by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT). 

Four courses were scheduled to be delivered but two failed to complete due to COVID-19. Only data from the completed courses (Groups 1 & 2) is contained in this dataset 

Participant data was collected pre-intervention (T1) at the end of the intervention (T2) and at six-month follow-up (T3)

Managers of consenting participants were contacted by email for feedback.

17 parent participants completed T1 measures (Group 1 (n = 8) or Group 2 (n = 9)); 15 (88.24%) completed T2 measures and six (35.29%) completed T3. 

8 Manager completed follow-up evaluation.

Due to the small dataset no data cleaning required. Data was analysed using pairwise deletion. 

Measures

Parental self-efficacy: 48-item scale TOPSE 

Parenting behaviour: 9-item Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-Short Form (APQ-SF)

Child behavioural screen: 25-item Strengths and Difficulties (SDQ) 

Ideographic goal: Personal goal in attending the course. Scored 1-10

Stress: 7 item stress scale of the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21)

Wellbeing: Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS)

Occupational self-efficacy: 6-item Short-form Occupational Self-efficacy (OSE-SF)

Patient-as-parent practice: 26-item scale devised by the research team and used previously.

Satisfaction and acceptability: a nine-item scale. 

Manager feedback: Brief online questionnaire comprising four yes/no questions relating to positive and negative effects of the course and an optional free text comment. 

  

Abstract

Background

Mental health workers are subject to high levels of occupational stress which is associated with poorer health and wellbeing and impaired patient outcomes. For individuals operating in high stress environments, reducing challenge at home, in particular around parenting, has been found to generalise into improvements in the professional domain. The present study sought to investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of brief targeted workplace intervention to support workers in terms of their parental role.

Design/methodology

An uncontrolled evaluation of a series of three-session parenting-focused courses delivered to employees of a large Mental Health Trust. A pre-post-follow-up design was used to investigate effects on outcomes including parenting practice and experience, wellbeing, stress, and occupational self-efficacy. Intervention feasibility and acceptably was also evaluated.

Findings

Data from 15 participants who completed measures pre-post indicates the courses were associated with improved parenting practice and experience at a p<.005 level. Improvements were reported at 6-month follow up. Participant satisfaction and course acceptability was highly rated by 100% of participants.