{"id":1549,"date":"2020-03-30T21:30:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T02:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ddmh.lab.yorku.ca\/?page_id=1549"},"modified":"2024-09-10T14:48:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T18:48:50","slug":"culturally-responsive-counselling-for-parents","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/health\/lab\/ddmh\/culturally-responsive-counselling-for-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Culturally Responsive Counselling for Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Program Evaluation of the CARES Program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What was this project about?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Experiences of stress impact parents\u2019 mental health and their capacity to support their children\u2019s needs. The\u00a0South Asian Autism Awareness Centre<\/a>\u00a0(SAAAC) in Scarborough developed an intervention to address the need for culturally responsive mental health care for parents of autistic children. The SAAAC CARES (Counselling, Assistance, Reinforcement and Empowerment Services) program is a volunteer-run, group-based counselling service for parents in the South Asian community. Volunteers from the South Asian community were selected based on their experience working with vulnerable populations and were preferably matched with groups of 2\u20136 parents with whom they were able to communicate in their first language. Groups met for six-sessions where they discussed understanding and accepting their child\u2019s diagnosis, coping skills, and goal setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How did we do this project?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the SAAAC, parent participants completed questionnaires before and after the CARES program to assess changes in mental health, family distress, and quality of life. Additionally, parents completed brief surveys at each of the six sessions to evaluate satisfaction with the program. Starting in 2018, staff at SAAAC began collaborating with Dr. Jonathan Weiss on a program evaluation of the CARES program using these measures. This project evaluated the program\u2019s clinical utility (feasibility and preliminary effectiveness).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What did we do with our research findings?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Through collaboration with SAAAC, findings from this study provided evidence of high program satisfaction across sessions. Participating parents also reported improved mental health and quality of life as well as lower levels of family distress and parental stress after completing the program. An article summarizing these findings has been published in an academic journal and findings were presented at an academic conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Results<\/h2>\n\n\n