An exploration into the challenges faced by parents of children with physical and/or psychological difficulties, and how an improved understanding of these challenges can help to inform the design and delivery of interventions, especially those involving co-therapy

Abstract

The ability for parents to be directly involved and engaged in the implementation of clinical interventions for their child, can be both efficacious andkey to improving the quality and usefulness of care for families and young people(Ingoldsby, 2010;Nock & Ferriter, 2005;Haine-Schlagel & Walsh, 2015). Chapter one is a systematic review examining the evidence for this position, with particular attention paid to the parental experiences of involvement during therapeutic interventions. The review identified fourteen studies with a variety of interventions,both physical and psychological in nature, from eight countries. The results suggested that five key themes were pertinent to parental experiences. These were: the change in family life, the need to become expert in delivering interventions, the challenges that families faced, distress and uncertainty of the parent and the relationships parents had with health staff. Each of these themes were explored, in depth, within the review and implications for practice and further research areas are identified.

Chapter two of this thesis is an empirical paper describing a study that used qualitative methodology to explore the lived experiences of eight parents of a child with a learning disability. The aim of the study was to learn more about parental experiences of implementing a psychological intervention for their child. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to capture the subjective meanings that parents described about their experiences and four superordinate themes were identified, which were: Adapting and changing, Developing confidence, Working with services andBuilding support. These findings were consistent with previous literature suggesting that changes need to be made to services to better enable parents to access support. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are provided.

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