The acceptability and feasibility of the Baby Triple P Positive Parenting Programme on a mother and baby unit: Q-methodology with mothers with severe mental illness

Abstract

New mothers with severe mental illness (SMI) frequently experience significant difficulties in caring for their babies. There are no structured, evidence-based interventions that guide health professionals to help these women improve early parenting. The extensively researched and effective Triple P Positive Parenting Programme has recently been expanded to families with children less than 1 year old, which provides an opportunity to develop the intervention for women with severe postnatal mental illness. This study explored the views of mothers with SMI about the acceptability and feasibility of Baby Triple P (Baby TP) in the setting of a psychiatric Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). An 88-item Q-sort was conducted with a purposive sample of 15 mothers using Q-methodology. Three main factors were identified: 'what we need', 'what we want' and 'we can do it'. A consensus was noted with general agreement about the benefits of Baby TP, and suitability of the MBU environment to accommodate Baby TP. Baby TP was viewed as an acceptable and feasible parenting intervention and deemed positive and non-stigmatising. Mothers requested more staff awareness and knowledge about the programme so that they were supported in learning and generalising skills.

Parenting interventions in tic disorders: an exploration of parents' perspectives

“…Q-methodology is being increasingly used within healthcare research to gauge service users' opinions of interventions (e.g. Westbrook et al 2013;Butler et al 2014).…”

A systematic review of research on psychiatric mother-baby units

“…When a peer-reviewed journal article was published from a thesis and the two reported on the same research, the article but not the thesis was included (e.g. Butler, Hare, Walker, Wieck and Wittkowski 2014). When a thesis or section of a thesis had not been published then the original thesis was included (e.g.…”

“…The sources included in this theme are outlined in Table 4, which also includes assessments of mother-infant relationships. In terms of specific findings, Butler et al (2014) examined the views of mothers about a parenting program (the Baby Triple P Positive Parenting Programme) run in one UK MBU.…”

A literature review to guide novice researchers using Q methodology in the development of a framework for concourse management

“…From the 44 articles 23 did not identify any framework, including any thematic groupings that could be used as a framework during the development of the concourse). Of these 23 articles, only 2 discussed the limitations of their concourse development strategies or recognise that a framework might have added clarity or credibility to their work (Butler et al, 2014;McHugh et al, 2015).…”