Incredible years guru a bonus for NZ

Incredible years guru a bonus for NZ

Nurses, psychologists and social workers came from all over the North Island to train with U.S. psychologist Carolyn Webster-Stratton, developer of the renowned ‘Incredible Years’ series of programs, who was in Tauranga this week.

Carolyn was brought out by the Ministry of Education to work with teachers, and BOPDHB clinical psychologist Dianne Lees seized the opportunity to get her in front of 20 key health professionals.

The Incredible Years Parent Training Programs and Teacher Training Programs are used in 15 countries to promote children’s social competence, emotional regulation and problem solving skills and reduce behaviour problems. They have been proven to turn around the behaviour of up to 80 per cent of children of participating parents and teachers.

Incredible Years Parent Training is offered through the Werry Centre in New Zealand, and Dianne is the only accredited mentor in this country. “The objectives of these programs are to help parents and teachers provide young children with a strong emotional, social and academic foundation,” she says. “This achieves the longer term goal of reducing depression, violence, drug abuse and social problems in later years.”

The program for parents of babies is relatively new in the series, and reflects a growing emphasis on infant mental health. Aimed at parents identified as needing support, the program focuses on helping them learn to observe and read their babies’ cues and learn ways to provide nurturing and responsive care including physical, tactile, visual and verbal communication.

The two-day training course at the BOPDHB Clinical School gave 20 health professionals a grounding in how to run the program with New Zealand parents. “We had five maternal mental health nurses in our DHB attend, along with other staf working with parents of new born babies. We also invited staff from other non-government organisations who work with new parents. The aim is to increase the numbers of programs offered in the community, so more parents and infants can be supported.”

“Parenting courses are not usually offered till problems are identified,” says Carolyn. “It would be better to start earlier with these families, as by increasing protective factors such as social and emotional strength many behavioural problems can be averted.”

The program is used by the Child Protection Services in Washington where there is tremendous turn out for the baby program. “There is an expectation that it will make a difference, as we have seen with the programs designed for older children,” she says.

Carolyn is impressed with the support infrastructure being developed for Incredible Years group leaders in New Zealand, through the Werry Centre. “New Zealand is very progressive in that group leaders here are being provided with coaching, support and mentoring so that they can can achieve accreditation. This will help build a solid foundation of quality delivery of the programs and lead to good outcomes and sustainability.”

For Dianne, having Carolyn here has been a huge bonus and she is looking forward to seeing the results, as the new group leaders begin parent baby and toddler programs around the country.

ENDS

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