Single session email consultation for parents: an evaluation of its effect on empowerment

Abstract

This study evaluated the effect of single session email consultation (SSEC) on empowerment of parents. Practitioners in a control group (n = 19) received no training and practitioners in an experimental group (n = 21) were trained to use empowermentoriented techniques in online consultation. Parental empowerment was measured (n = 96) through a questionnaire based on the Family Empowerment Scale before and after receiving advice from a trained or a non-trained practitioner. Parents showed a significant increase in the subscale of self-confidence (Cohen's d = 0.33). Study findings lend support to the feasibility of SSEC as a brief intervention to improve selfconfidence of parents. A training for practitioners did not influence the outcomes.

Parental Empowerment: Construct Validity and Reliability of a Dutch Empowerment Questionnaire (EMPO)

“…Since the 1980s in The Netherlands, value has increasingly been attached to the empowerment of clients within healthcare (Van Regenmortel 2009;Schouten 2013;Verzaal 2002). For youth care, this can be seen in the increase of empowerment-oriented programs such as Families First (Spanjaard and Haspels 2005), Home-Start (Hermanns et al 1997), Family Centered Therapy (Bolt 2006), Family Group Conference (Van Pagée 2003, Signs of Safety (Turnell and Edwards 1999), wraparound care (Bruns et al 2006), or parent support programs (e.g., Kutash et al 2011;Nieuwboer et al 2015;Robbins et al 2008). The increasing use of such programs can be seen as the consequences of adopting a strength-based approach to care instead of a deficit-based approach (Slot and Spanjaard 2009), a tendency which is also prevalent in other countries (Powell et al 1997;Lietz 2011).…”

Understanding factors that promote and limit the use of video guidance in child protection services: A SWOT analysis

“…Parents who have experiences of being treated as "less than human" in the CPS also report feelings that they were not afforded the same rights as participants, decision-makers, or partners, in improving their situation (Smithson & Gibson, 2017). Empowerment-oriented programs such as parent support programs (Kutash, Duchnowski, Green, & Ferron, 2011;Nieuwboer, Fukkink, & Hermanns, 2015) assume that clients who come for help already have various competencies and resources that may be accessed to improve their situation. Empowerment calls upon individual resources and may involve the willingness of an individual to change undesired situations and take control while doing so (Zimmerman, 1995).…”

Chathulp bij opvoeden en ouderschap: ervaringen met online alliantie

“…Door het online consult begrijpen ze de situatie beter, hebben ze meer inzicht en denken ze op de juiste manier te kunnen handelen. 6 Professionals zetten hierbij algemeen werkzame factoren (zoals alliantie) en specifieke werkzame factoren (bijv. een richtlijn, een methodiek) in.…”

“…Alliantie is daarom minstens net zo belangrijk als de inhoud van het consult. 6,8 Impliciet wordt alliantie vaak gezien als een proces dat enige tijd in beslag neemt, waarbij de contactmomenten gebaseerd zijn op een zekere band en vertrouwdheid: hulpverlener en hulpvrager leren elkaar kennen en bouwen voort op deze relatie. In (anoniem en/of eenmalig) online contact zijn deze omstandigheden intrinsiek anders.…”