| Project Objectives / Summary:
The project targeted areas of need in situations of family breakdown or isolation in an attempt to break the cycle of suspicion and blame. The goal to increase feelings of competency and coping skills for mothers of children aged 0 - 6 and children in year one.
The project had three main aspects: support for mothers with children aged 0 - 2 years; support for mother with children aged 2 - 6 years; and a program for early childhood workers in emotional literacy programs.
The project involved developing partnerships with local government as they have a greater involvement in providing adequate and appropriate services in rural and remote areas than their counterparts in regional and urban areas.
The project's broad aims included:
- To provide a comfortable, supportive atmosphere for mothers to enjoy the company of other adults and to increase social support networks, thereby preventing social isolation;
- To educate mothers about particular parenting issues and services; and
- To increase coping abilities by allowing mothers to relax, experience enjoyable activities and increase their skills and knowledge
The groups were structured into weekly two-hour sessions over a ten-month period (September 1999 to June 2000). They were not held during school holidays. There was a total of 29 weeks in which sessions were held. Each week, there were two sessions, one for mothers of children aged 0 - 2 years and another for mothers of children aged 2 - 6.
Each month, a calendar of topics was prepared for the coming month based on suggestions from group members. Each group also allowed time for parents to talk amongst themselves and to relax and meet others. Childcare was provided in the same venue at no cost to participants.
Project Collaboration:
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team
- Mobile Resource Unit
- Community Health Team
- NSW Department of Community Services
- Rural Counselling Service
- Community Pre-school & Community Childcare
Project Outcomes:
- Emotional Literacy Review and Programme Development. Due to inflexible American models and no Australian model being available, the program had to be written from research materials. The emotional literacy program was reviewed by an academic in Early Childhood Education at the James Cook University. The programme was amended many times throughout its presentation to preschool teachers in response to participant feedback.
- Mothers Support groups incorporating babysitters. Finding reliable babysitters posed some difficulties. People identified as appropriate were looking for full time employment or were already employed. When it was not possible to find a babysitter, disruption to the mothers meeting caused frustration and anxiety.
- Qualitative feedback was obtained from 40% of participants in
the Mothers Support Groups through questionnaires and a focus group using semi-structured interview. The overwhelming consensus from all evaluation participants was that they wished more women had attended and felt that many others would have received benefit from attending had they either known about it and/or chosen to attend. They provided suggestions for increasing participation rates such as using other health professionals to issue invitations to new or prospective mothers.
The participants in the group were not representative of a wide cross-section of the local community. They tended to be non-Aboriginal, older than 20 years of age, previously or currently employed, educated and middle class (information obtained from interview and observation). The fact that Aboriginal participants chose not to return to the group also suggests that it did not meet the needs of such a group. It is possible that other community members had their needs met through other forums (there were parenting sessions held at a different venue with alternative facilitators during the implementation phase) or that the set-up of the Mothers Support Group was not conducive to the participation of under-represented community members.
Further investigation would need to be conducted in order to make qualified judgments about the participation sample. Nevertheless, a proportion of the community obviously did receive valuable support and education by attending the Mothers Support Groups and they expressed their support for their continuance.
Recommendations:
- Little motivation to attend training in emotional literacy was found from primary school teachers, perhaps due to lack of accreditation and official acknowledgment of the training.
- Support programs for young children tend to have a shelf life as mothers return to the work force at approximately 12 months. Developing a program that could be run at intervals to enable mothers of young children to attend the group could be helpful.
Disseminating Project Information:
- Interview with project coordinator on local radio.
- Mothers' Support Group Flier
Lessons / Assessment:
The major difficulty was encouraging attendance. Those who attended did so due to personal invitation. Monthly fliers with a program of topics were produced and distributed around the town, including the doctors' surgeries, Community Health and Mental Health offices. One woman was in town to visit her GP and was experiencing a crisis, saw the flier and attended for one session. This is the only person who came due to this advertising. The Project Officer received some positive feedback after a radio interview, but no increased attendance. Numbers also dropped off when mothers returned to work or moved to another town.
Another difficulty encountered was that of finding reliable babysitters. This aspect was of particular importance for the older group. At times, this proved very disruptive.
The project hosted a morning for Koori mothers which was facilitated by the Child and Family Health nurse. With little personal contact with this sector of the community, it is difficult to build bridges with them. It is essential to have the support of Community Health, who regularly run the courses mentioned above and conduct home visits, to introduce people to the group for infants. Many women consider Community Health in terms of immunisations and having baby weighed and do not access the wide range of facilities on offer.
Overall, this was a small project aimed at attitudinal change more than anything else. The methodology was simple and the basic lesson is that hard, continuing work is needed to effect attitudinal change. This project serves a useful reminder that local issues require local solutions.
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