Providing Family Support Through Community Guides

Abstract

The Family Support Opportunities program in the state of Washington has a unique component. People with extensive knowledge of local communities, referred to as community guides, were made available to all families enrolled in the program. Community guides assisted families by seeking information about community resources that families needed and helping families connect to those resources. Responses from a survey of 312 families were analyzed to determine the impact of the community guides' services. Results suggest that when families indicated satisfaction with their community guides, they reported better outcomes in terms of their needs being met, satisfaction with Family Support Opportunities, and connections to their local communities.

Psychoeducational Program for Parents of Adolescents With Intellectual Disabilities

“…Psychoeducational programs for parents of children with disabilities should help families obtain information about services for their child and find out how to locate and avail themselves of existing resources, and should provide information regarding the access to respite services so that parents can take a break from the heavy demands of looking after their child (Ellis et al., ; Romer, Richardson, Nahom, Aigbe, & Porter, ).…”

Review of parental activation interventions for parents of children with special health care needs

“…Kutash et al () reported a moderate effect size for increase in school‐based mental health service use among intervention youth with emotional disturbances. The only exception was Romer's et al () study of a community guide intervention. Families satisfied with their guides did not differ from “no guide” families in terms of finding specific support services.…”

“…Of 19 studies that provided caregiver data, seven (Chernoff, Ireys, DeVet, & Kim, ; Ireys, Chernoff, DeVet, & Kim, ; Magaña, Lopez, & Machalicek, ; Pilon & Smith, ; Silver, Ireys, Bauman, & Stein, ; Sullivan‐Bolyai et al, , ) targeted mothers; one (Sullivan‐Bolyai, Bova, Lee, & Gruppuso, ) focused on fathers; six included either parent (Jerram, Raeburn, & Stewart, ; Kieckhefer et al, ; Picard, Morin, & De Mondehare, ; Singer et al, ; Swallow et al, ; Thomas et al, ); two included parent dyads (Dellve, Samuelsson, Tallborn, Fasth, & Hallberg, ; Schultz et al, ); and three included grandparents along with biological, adopted, or step parents (Farber & Maharaj, ; Ireys, Sills, Kolodner, & Walsh, ; Kutash, Duchnowski, Green, & Ferron, ). Seven studies focused on children with a variety of chronic health conditions (Chernoff et al, ; Dellve et al, ; Hixson, Stoff, & White, ; Ireys et al, ; Jerram et al, ; Kieckhefer et al, ; Pless & Satterwhite, ); five focused on children with specific chronic conditions such as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (Ireys et al, ), diabetes (Sullivan‐Bolyai et al, , , ), or chronic kidney disease (Swallow et al, ); six studies included children with developmental or intellectual disabilities (Farber & Maharaj, ; Magaña et al, ; Picard et al, ; Pilon & Smith, ; Romer, Richardson, Nahom, Aigbe, & Porter, ; Schultz et al, ); two studies included children with both chronic health conditions or developmental disabilities (Silver et al, ; Singer et al, ); and two studies focused on youth with emotional or mental health conditions (Kutash et al, ; Thomas et al, ).…”

“…In two studies (Magaña et al, ; Pless & Satterwhite, ), experienced mothers worked with families to provide psychosocial counselling, parenting advice, care‐coordination, advocacy tips, and support with navigating services. In Romer et al (), lay community members who had personal, professional, or volunteer experience with children with disabilities delivered similar services. Factors essential for successful implementation included community workers' personalities, their ability to meet per family convenience, and families having a clear understanding of the community workers' role.…”

“…Effectiveness of interventions did not appear to vary by intervention format, whether one‐on‐one or group‐based. However, perceived usefulness of one‐on‐one interventions appeared to be contingent on the provider's personality and the receiving parent's ability to relate to the provider (Pless & Satterwhite, ; Romer et al, ; Singer et al, ), thereby rendering such interventions difficult to standardize. Notably, four of nine studies (Ireys et al, ; Kutash et al, ; Silver et al, ; Singer et al, ) involving one‐on‐one support from an experienced parent mentor reported greater effectiveness for parents who were doing poorly at baseline (more anxious, less able to cope).…”