Healthy Mothers Healthy Families, Health Promoting Activity Coaching for mothers of children with a disability: Exploring mothers' perspectives of programme feasibility

Abstract

Background: Health Promoting Activity Coaching, an intervention within the Healthy Mothers Healthy Families programme (HMHF-HPAC), was delivered by occupational therapists in a project that assessed feasibility of this new intervention. The HMHF-HPAC promotes the health and well-being of mothers of children with disabilities and is a six-session programme with website, workbook, and one-on-one coaching. Consumer experiences of this novel health-promoting intervention were sought to enable consumerinformed feedback for future modifications and improvements prior to further development.Methods: This qualitative study explored the experiences of mothers who participated in the HMHF-HPAC and their perspectives on the service delivery, content and impact. This study was embedded within an overarching feasibility study and was conducted parallel to a quantitative component. Seven mothers who completed the HMHF-HPAC participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed thematically using a six-stage thematic approach.Findings: Four key themes emerged: Recognising Mothers; From Vulnerability to Empowerment; A Goal for Me; and Perspectives on Content and Delivery. Mothers reported increased participation in health-promoting activities over the duration of HMHF-HPAC, reflective of their individual needs. Mothers described improved mood and energy levels, reduced stress and anxiety, greater self-awareness, and increased engagement in leisure activities with their children. Health-promoting goals identified by mothers' pertained to improving physical activity levels, healthy dietary changes, sleep quality and duration, community engagement, and mindfulness activities. Mothers reported that their child's occupational therapists, the website, and workbook were acceptable and viable.

Leisure, Employment, Community Participation, and Quality of Life in Primary Caregivers of Autistic Children: A Qualitative Study

“…Several meaningful activities were identified by parents with the most common being employment, family outings, and leisure activities. Past literature has also highlighted similar activities as being beneficial for QoL in caregivers of children with additional needs, including autism (Davy et al, 2022 ), with increased frequency of health-related activities associated with higher levels of maternal QoL (Bourke-Taylor et al, 2012 ; Harris et al, 2022 ). However, other research has found that increased participation in leisure and community activities resulted in poorer physical health-related QoL in mothers of autistic children (Rizk et al, 2011 ).…”

“…Further, more supports are needed to help primary caregivers to create time alongside their caregiving responsibilities for occupations (e.g., leisure, employment, social activities) deemed meaningful for their own QoL. A recent study demonstrated the benefits of focusing a portion of the child’s occupational therapy session to coaching mothers of children with additional needs, including autism, to engage in leisure and recreational activities with improvements found in caregiver participation and QoL outcomes after six sessions (Harris et al, 2022 ). Thus, integrating supports for the caregiver into their child’s services may help to improve caregiver outcomes without needing to add another task to their already busy schedules.…”

Child and caregiver predictors of primary caregiver participation in families of school‐aged Autistic children

“…Research shows that mothers of children with additional needs, including autism, have improved levels of QoL when they engage more frequently in health‐promoting activities such as self‐care or physical exercise (Bourke‐Taylor et al, 2012). Further, programs designed to empower mothers to increase their frequency of participation in leisure or self‐care activities have been shown to be effective in improving health related QoL and well‐being (Bourke‐Taylor et al, 2019; Harris et al, 2022).…”

Partnering with consumers: Do occupational therapists genuinely partner? Can we do more?

“…Four papers focus on occupational therapy education, with three discussing the involvement of lived experience experts in mental health (Happel et al, 2022; Logan et al, 2022; Scanlan et al, 2022) and one discussing consumers providing feedback to students during practice placements (Bevitt et al, 2022). Two focus on the involvement of consumers in developing services (Harris et al, 2022; Pozniak et al, 2022), and three focus on consumer partnerships in research (Chapman et al, 2022; Cox et al, 2022; Liddle et al, 2022).…”

“…The authors, including consumer‐investigators, identified seven key ingredients for successful parent–researcher working relationships, which included consistent communication, clear roles and expectations, onboarding and feedback, flexibility, understanding, self‐reflection, and funding. Harris et al's (2022) qualitative study explored mothers' perspectives on a co‐delivered intervention that uses coaching to empower mothers of children with disabilities. Mothers reported that the programme increased participation in health‐promoting activities, improved their mood and energy levels, reduced stress, and provided greater self‐awareness and engagement in leisure with children.…”