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- The Single Session Consultation for Parents of Young Kids through Patient Engagement Techniques (SPYKids) was a single session intervention (SSI) to support families waiting for comprehensive services. The goal of the program is to provide concrete tools to help families with children aged 2- to 5-years-old manage difficult child behaviours and strategies to reduce parenting stress. Eight families currently receiving or on waitlists for services in Manitoba and 10 service providers participated in focus groups and questionnaires.
- Parents reported feeling “lost in the system”. They had difficulties navigating the system and experienced feelings of frustration with the slow pace of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. All parents expressed support for developing an SSI. Service providers thought families would be motivated to attend the SSI to reduce stress associated with being on a waitlist and due to the appeal of learning new skills that could be used to support family needs. Concerns with the SSI included the ability of the clinician to build rapport with the family during one session, the possibility of families feeling overwhelmed by all the information, and accessibility concerns (e.g., for rural families).
- Challenges of the focus group included recruiting a diverse group of parents and service providers. Program development challenges include ensuring materials are as effective as possible for a single session, accessibility issues including avoiding jargon and delivering the session by phone instead of computer, and the feasibility of creating handouts that are useful after the session.
- The resulting SPYKids program will be piloted as a solution-focused and strengths-based 90-minute virtual SSI for families with children with neurodevelopmental disorders. SPYKids aims to provide caregivers with tools that will help manage family stressors while waiting rot receive comprehensive services from other organizations.
