What is the positive change that has emerged through new collaborations or partnerships during Covid-19 that your project is going to embed?

During COVID MPFT have had a number of virtual meetings to learn from the Rollercoaster project, which was a project to support parents and carers, developed from lived experience, to look at how we can replicate this in South Staffordshire. In particular, during COVID, much of the peer support has moved online, including running Facebook live and zoom calls for parents and carers to give and get support from one another, with the support of CAMHS staff to deal with any clinical or challenging issues.  Our one parent support group, which operates in only one district, has struggled to gain momentum due to lock down and we want to be able to offer peer support to more parents at what we know is a challenging time.

What does your project aim to achieve?

Parents of children with emotional and mental health needs often feel isolated and lack support in caring for their child. This has been particularly true and evident during the COVID-19 lockdown.  The MPFT project team believe that supporting parent’s anxiety and mental health benefits children.

Children with emerging mental health problems need to receive support in a timely way to help them develop improved emotional well-being and reduce the need for specialist services where these are not required, in some of our districts there may be long waiting times for support. Empowering parents with the knowledge of how to support their child, and to understand that what they are experiencing is normal, through a support forum the project team believe help reduce demand for services.  This would also develop support/signposting opportunities aligned with the THRIVE model which is being implemented across Staffordshire.

How will the project be delivered?

The project would employ a parent, as expert by experience, to help the organisation develop a wider range of workshops and support groups for other parents whose children who have mental health needs.  This person would work alongside a CAMHs practitioner.  They would work with other parents (whom we would pay for their time) to design and deliver training via video conferencing to provide parents with the information and skills to support their child with emotional needs.

The project would pilot training and continuous support for parents to become peer mentors to other parents and establish an online communication platform for parents to engage with peer mentors and practitioners.

Learning from the PLACE Network, a group developed with the funding support of the Charlie Waller Trust, we would measure impact by parent feedback at the end of every session and via questionnaires. We would monitor attendance at events.

How is your project going to share learning?

Our proposed model is primarily via online delivery. The majority of peer support nationally prior to the COVID pandemic was via face to face meetings.  This project will be able to share learning around delivering support to parents via online media as the primary mode of delivery.

We will share learning via quarterly updates on the project and its outcomes which we would share with Q community and the PLACE Network. The PLACE Network provides a space for parents/carers and professionals delivering support to parent/carers across the UK.  We can learn from this network and share ideas.