International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Conference. 24-28th September 2023 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Conference partners: Childlight Global Child Safety Institute. Patrons: Police Scotland.
The ISPCAN 4-day conference hosted 800 people from 71 countries. ISPCAN have a new journal, Child Protection and Practice.
Professor Judy Hutchings spoke at this conference in Edinburgh hosted by ISPCAN. She presented the work with parents of young children that had been undertaken in Montenegro with our partner UNICEF. Her paper focused particularly on the way that the programme was implemented and the effective dissemination that has been achieved through the UNICEF Montenegro work enabling it to be recognised and accredited by government agencies and delivered by professional staff as part of their employment.
People working on the Parenting for Lifelong health projects from across the globe were present, it was good to meet up with Dr Bernie Madrid from the Philippines. The PLH work was well represented among the papers. Judy also had a meeting with Yulia Shenderovich from Cardiff who is part of the team that are developing and evaluating the parenting for lifelong health teens programme in Eastern Europe., As we have been involved in a pilot project to implement this programme in Montenegro it was helpful to catch up on this parallel project.
The conference abstract and Judy’s biography are below
ABSTRACT
The quality of parenting program implementation significantly affects the extent to which a program is delivered effectively and becomes embedded in everyday services. The Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children (PLH-YC) parenting program was developed specifically for implementation in low- and middle-income contexts, tested in 5 randomised trials, and adapted for use in Montenegro. This paper reports on the implementation and pre-post-evaluation of the first delivery of the PLH-YC program for parents of children aged 2-9 years in regular services in Montenegro and subsequent work to embed the program with fidelity. It describes the initial work to ensure effective delivery, the implementation process, and subsequent developments. During the initial delivery, 71 parents attended the program, of whom 68 (96%) provided pre- and post-intervention data. Significant effects were found for the primary outcome of reducing child maltreatment, and for the secondary outcomes of improving positive parenting and reducing child behavior problems, dysfunctional parenting practices, and parental depression. The evaluation of the second cycle of five groups to 45 parents included one comparable measure (positive parenting) that showed better results than those achieved by the initial groups. Successful piloting led to local program training accreditation and a series of steps toward successful embedding of PLH-YC in routine settings in Montenegro.
TOPICS
- Programs and Practice that Work for Preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect across sectors
PRESENTED BY
Prof. Judy Hutchings
Bangor University Wales
Professor Judy Hutchings, D. Clin Psych., FBPsS, OBE.
Director, Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention
For 37 years, until retirement in 2010, I was an NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist with responsibility for services for children with behavioural problems. From 1988 I have held an appointment with Bangor University as Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention.
I have run parenting programmes since 1976. I supported the introduction of parenting programmes into preventive Sure Start services across Wales and undertook research projects on aspects of services for conduct disordered children including a randomised controlled trial study of an intensive coaching intervention with four year follow-up for parents and children with severe behaviour problems. I run workshops in Bangor and continue to research and support interventions for parents, children and teachers. I currently lead the Bangor work evaluating the school-based KiVa bullying prevention programme and research into a home visiting programme for parents of high challenge pre-school children and web based parent support programme and a book sharing intervention. I have published extensively and lectured and taught in many European countries, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and South Africa. In 2011 I received an OBE for work with children and families.