Parents Under Pressure ( PuP ) program is a leading international program to improve outcomes for children living in families facing multiple adversities, including substance abuse and mental health challenges.
Co-developed by Griffith University researchers Professor Sharon Dawe and Associate Professor Paul Harnett, the PuP program is the only Australian program with an evidence base for effective engagement and change in this group of families. PuP is intended to be used to formulate an individually tailored, therapeutic family support plan, carefully crafted and individualised to each family’s unique circumstances.
The therapeutic family support plan draws from our understanding of the importance of early attachment relationships, to help parents and caregivers of young children provide a nurturing, safe and loving home.
Professor Dawe
"As many parents and caregivers have also faced considerable childhood adversity, there is also a focus on supporting the development of emotional regulation skills in the parents themselves."
"This, in turn, further supports the development of child self-regulation."
The overarching aim of the program is to help parents facing adversity, develop positive and secure relationships with their children.
"Within this strength-based approach, the family environment becomes more nurturing and less conflictual and children are able to learn how to manage their own behaviour, supported by their parents," explains Professor Dawe.
Initial trials, published in 2007, found significant reductions in child abuse potential, parental distress, improvements in parental emotional regulation and improvements in child behaviour in families engaged in opioid replacement services.
Further studies have confirmed the benefits to families at high risk of child abuse in different contexts and demonstrated substantial improvements across several areas including child behaviour, parental stress and child abuse potential. International studies have also found benefits for families engaged in the PuP program across diverse groups including high-risk expectant mothers and families engaged in community addiction services (United Kingdom), PuP for Dads (Scotland) and mothers engaged in residential treatment facilities (Ireland).
Around 6,000 families worldwide have participated in the PuP program, with conservative cost-effectiveness analysis estimating social service savings of more than A$3 million for every 100 families that participate in the program.
The University's commercialisation and technology transfer office, Griffith Enterprise (GE), are proud supporters of the PuP program, and the program's developers, Professor Sharon Dawe and Associate Professor Paul Harnett. GE oversees all aspects of licensing and implementation of the PuP program throughout Australia, the UK and Republic of Ireland. PuP is currently under negotiation for expansion in the European Union and Canada. The Integrated Theoretical Framework underpinning PuP, acknowledges that families function within the wider social ecology of extended family and community. Consistent with Indigenous models of social and emotional wellbeing, PuP acknowledges the importance of connection to country, community and culture, as well as the historical and contemporary social determinants of health and wellbeing. PuP is suitable for implementation with any at-risk families, and can be tailored to the needs of specific communities, including First Nations communities – in partnership with the PuP developers.
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