Enhancing parenting skills for parents with mental illness: the Mental Health Positive Parenting Program.

Objective: To determine the effect of the Mental Health Positive Parenting Program (MHPPP) on parenting practices of parents reporting a mental health problem.

Design, Setting And Participants: A prospective before-and-after examination of positive parenting skills and parent-reported child outcomes among parents of children aged 2-10 years who had self-reported a mental health problem. One hundred and eleven (85.4%) of 130 parents who commenced the MHPPP completed the program. Of these, 77.5% (n = 86) completed both before- and after-intervention measures. The MHPPP was conducted across four community health centres.

Intervention: A 10-week intervention was tailored to parents with a mental health problem. The intervention was divided into a 6-week group parenting program based on the Positive Parenting Program and four weekly home visits.

Main Outcome Measures: Parental discipline practices and children's behaviour were measured by the Parenting Scale (PS) and the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), respectively.

Results: Following the MHPPP, parents scored significantly lower on each of the PS subscales: laxness (Z = - 6.23; P < 0.001), over-reactivity (Z = - 7.15; P < 0.001) and verbosity (Z = - 6.59; P < 0.001); and significantly lower on both ECBI subscales: intensity (Z = - 7.08, P < 0.001) and problem (Z = - 7.57; P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest the MHPPP can reduce the number of dysfunctional parenting strategies and parent-reported child behavioural problems. The MHPPP is a promising avenue for early intervention in this population.