Piloting a Family Carer Support Programme V.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Piloting a Support Programme for Family Carers of Children With a Learning/Developmental Disability.
IRAS ID
138750
Contact name
Nick Gore
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Kent
Research summary
Children with learning disabilities experience increased difficulty in communicating, understanding and controlling the world around them. As a result such children often display behaviours that challenge such as self-injury and aggression which have detrimental impacts on their wellbeing and life opportunities. Families of children with learning disabilities often experience high rates of stress and emotional difficulties (particularly if their child displays challenging behaviour) and may struggle to access the support they need. There are exceptionally few forms of services available to these families in the early years.
The proposed pilot study involves delivering a new 8 session support programme to family carers of young children (aged 0-5) who have or are suspected of having a learning or developmental disability. The programme has been developed in consultation with professionals and family carers and covers a range of topics relevant to raising a child with additional needs (e.g. accessing services and benefits, safeguarding family carer emotional wellbeing, communication, sleep, managing challenging behaviour). The programme aims to provide family carers with knowledge, skills, and resources which may be useful in supporting their child as well as signposting them to relevant additional sources of support. The programme will be co-facilitated by an experienced clinical psychologist and a family carer who will receive mentoring and support from the research team.
It is anticipated that the programme will be run twice within East Kent and will last for 8 weeks (one 2.5 hour session per week) each time. Family carers who take part will be asked to complete some measures before and after the programme. Some of the measures are about perceptions of children’s skills and behaviour and some are about participants’ knowledge, confidence and supports received. A sample of participants will also be interviewed about their experience.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/1742
Date of REC Opinion
17 Dec 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion