Working through the parent to the child: Improving practice and outcomes. Dr Mark Innocenti

The importance of the first 3 years of development cannot be understated. Our approach to working with families has moved from a focus on the interventionist working directly with the child to a family-centred model.  Concomitant with these changes in service has been a growing research base focused on how we best work through the parent to the child to obtain measurable outcomes. Sadly, practices in the field have not kept pace with the growing research base.  This presentation will examine our current research base on practices and our implementation evidence base.  Issues in implementation will be presented.  Suggestions for how we move the home visiting field forward will be discussed.  Tools that can help with this process will be presented. The individualised nature of the process and the fact that each family, indeed each visit, is a unique event increases the challenge of providing quality services.