The Impact of a Brief Home-Based Intervention on Families with a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

A brief intervention is described and evaluated that aimed to build and strengthen relationships for families of children diagnosed with ASD aged 12 and under. A particular focus was on socially disadvantaged parents. Parents were offered around five home visits which took place on weekdays during working hours; each lasting around 90 min. They were given individualised practical tools and support to manage their children’s behaviours alongside providing a listening ear to parents’ concerns. In all, 456 children and 427 families participated over a four-year period with a take-up rate of 87% of all referrals. The drop-out rate was low (4.5%) as was the proportion of missed and cancelled appointments. Parents’ satisfaction ratings were high and most found the number of sessions provided was ‘just right’. Children improved in their personal care, had less difficulty with change, showed less anger and had fewer meltdowns. Parents reported being less stressed, not feeling so down and managing their child better. The evaluations suggested that a brief home-based intervention is a viable and effective means of providing personalized, post-diagnostic support to parents at periodic intervals, although socially disadvantaged families may require additional assistance beyond managing their child’s ASD. The project also highlighted broader issues that impede effective support for families.

Adjusting the family’s life: A grounded theory of caring for children with special healthcare needs in rural areas, Thailand

“…This finding illustrates that the family would prefer to have agency and to control their own schedule at home [ 24 , 46 ] rather than to depend on healthcare providers [ 47 – 49 ]. Studies on CSHCN including conditions such as asthma, autism spectrum disorder, and diabetes have found that using a home-based intervention, not only improved child health and quality of life, but also relieved psychological distress within the family [ 50 ].…”

“…Some Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, have launched universal coverage policies for a decade. Nevertheless, accessibility and quality of care have been identified as challenges in prior studies [ 28 , 29 , 49 , 50 ]. Due to geographical challenges, some health services and facilities were not available to the families in our study.…”

“…Thus, integrating care for CSHCN into the community health system was the third construct discussed by families in this study. Our study found that to bridge the equity gap in access to care, healthcare providers have to be available across their catchment area to provide high quality and satisfactory care to the family of CSHCN in person or using digital technologies [ 50 , 51 ]. However, only privileged people are likely to use smart devices, which means that access may be limited for the majority of people who have low literacy and financial limitations.…”

Social-Emotional Difficulties in Irish Children Aged Five and Nine Years: A National, Longitudinal Study

“…Also supports need to be provided to family caregivers to help build their coping strategies and enhance their emotional well-being. In Ireland, as in many other countries, such family-centred resources are not widely available and rarely on a preventative basis at a younger age [24]. Rather health and social services are focused on managing adolescents in crisis when higher levels of support are needed over longer periods with consequently greater costs.…”

Assessing the Satisfaction and Acceptability of an Online Parent Coaching Intervention: A Mixed-Methods Approach

“…During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there was a trend in the use of telehealth to deliver services for young children with ASD and their families, such as social communication interventions ( Simacek et al, 2021 ), diagnostic assessments ( Gibbs et al, 2021 ), early interventions ( Pickard et al, 2016 ; Mullan et al, 2021 ), and ABA related services ( Ferguson et al, 2019 ). Therefore, we developed a culturally adapted group-based parent coaching intervention based on the P-ESDM.…”