Speaker
Description
Author: Åsa Norman (Karolinska Institutet)
Background: Children as young carers to a parent with a serious illness, substance abuse, or who has died, often struggle to understand the situation, tackle anxiety and emotions, and have increased risks of own ill-health throughout life. Very little support is currently available to young children as young carers. The ”Good Dialogues” is a 4-session model with the purpose to, through child engagement, provide young carers aged 3-6 years with information, and support related to the parent’s illness. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and child engagement in the Good Dialogues for children 3-6 years old in Sweden.
Methods: A convergent mixed-methods approach was used with 19 video recorded sessions with children to study practitioner fidelity and child engagement. Semi-structured interviews with 7 practitioners and 6 caregivers and questionnaire data from 19 practitioners and 24 caregivers were analysed to evaluate feasibility and acceptability.
Results: Preliminary findings showed that feasibility and acceptability for the Good Dialogues model was high among practitioners and caregivers. The model provided children with space to be seen and heard by engaged practitioners, but where practitioners at times struggled to focus the session on the children’s rights and the parent’s illness. The material facilitated child engagement in the sessions by being playful and interesting for the age group but at times too cognitively demanding. Practitioner fidelity was considered to be moderate, and practitioners described a need to balance fidelity and child-centeredness in the sessions.
Discussion: The findings indicate the potential usefulness of the Good Dialogues and pinpoint important revisions to make the intervention more helpful for the age group. This study comprises an important first step for a future large scale effectiveness trial of the intervention with the potential of being one of the few tools to support young children as young carers.
| Conflict of interest | The author declares no conflict of interest |
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