Services join forces to help struggling parents

20 Jun 2008 | Bernie Goldie

Childhood behavioural problems such as rudeness, defiance and aggression often create great hardship for parents, teachers, siblings, peers and also for the children themselves.

Nearly half of the referrals to specialist child and adolescent services are due to behavioural problems. As children grow older, the problems generally become worse, leading to severe conduct issues such as stealing, vandalism and violence.

In recognition of the damaging effect of childhood behavioural problems, three local services have teamed up to offer an effective intervention for parents -- the Confident Carers-Cooperative Kids (CCCK) group program. CCCK was established in 2006 as a new community initiative by the Illawarra Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and Northfields Clinic at the University of Wollongong.

More recently, Family Services Illawarra has formed a partnership with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and UOW to provide Illawarra families with assistance in raising five to 11-year-old children who have problem behaviours.

Supervising Clinical Psychologist at UOW, Mark Donovan, said problem behaviours are shown by most, if not all, children from time-to-time.

“There are many causes of behaviour problems, including the child’s temperament, the parent’s inadvertent reinforcement of unwanted behaviours, and the impact of other sources of stress on the family. The more of these factors present, the more likely a child will develop problem behaviours. These problem behaviours significantly interfere with how children get along with their family, friends and schoolwork,” he said.

June Williams, Manager of Family Services Illawarra, said the partnership represented a great opportunity to bring much needed specialised support to families in a community setting.

“Confident Carers – Cooperative Kids” is a nine-week behavioural family intervention program for parents and carers that aims to reduce problem behaviours by focusing on improving:

• Parents’ ability to parent in a way that is consistent with how they want to be as parents

• Parent-child relationships through the use of play and other positive activities

• Effectiveness of praise and rewards when reinforcing appropriate behaviour

• Effectiveness of instructions when setting necessary limits on behaviour

• Use of preventative strategies (for example, planning ahead and managing emotions) that limit the causes of misbehaviour

• Consistency and type of responses to problem behaviour

Parents who have participated in the program in the past have spoken glowingly of its achievements with comments such “the group has been a lifesaver”; “the change in our child’s behaviour has been great but also our attitude has changed”; to one mother of a five-year-old boy who said: “I have read a lot about raising children and tried a lot of different things and this course has helped more than anything else”.

Note: Families can self-refer to this program by simply contacting Family Services Illawarra on 4295 6665 (Friday group) or the Northfields Clinic on 4221 3747 (Thursday evening group). Parents/carers attend the sessions, not the children. Cost for the program ranges from $15 to $60 depending on location and eligibility for concession.

Parents need to attend a pre-group meeting with their child before the group. The next groups begin:

10am, 25 July (Corrimal Community Centre)

6.30pm, 31 July (Northfields Clinic, UOW)

Media – for further information contact either Mark Donovan on (02) 4221 4820/3747 or 0410 239 030; June Williams on (02) 4295 6665 or 0407 016 028.