Therapeutic groups

At PIFA group work is thought of as both the means and the context by which change can occur for the participants. Our groups are seen as a vehicle for the development of the individual, their community and society at large.

PIFA’s groups are based on a social group work approach, in that they don’t just focus on the individual’s problems, but also take into account the effects of the environment that the individual is in (their community, school, workplace society etc)

PIFA's therapeutic mothers' groups aim to help women manage anxieties which arise during pregnancy and early parenting and to alleviate, as much as possible, the impact of these anxieties on the parent infant relationship
Strategies:

Mobilise mothers’ inner and outer resources to help them through the earlyparenting time
Allow for debriefing of labour
Facilitate formal and informal contact with other mothers
Facilitate referral when necessary
Facilitate contact with relevant community resources
Normalise and contain the mothers’ anxiety
Make links between mothers’ own experiences as babies and
those of their babies
Discuss expectations around parenting
Alleviate negative projections onto baby
Discuss expectations of baby and how parents can assist the meeting of normal developmental challenges

Lane Cove Group for very Vulnerable Women and their Infant

The Lane Cove group is facilitated by one of our most experienced parent infant workers who is a Clinical Psychologist as well as a trained psychotherapist. The group is conducted each Friday morning in the Lane Cove Uniting Church kindergarten room. Participants are referred from all around Sydney and current members come from western and eastern Sydney and lower north shore suburbs.

Group Aim:
The groups overarching aim is to improve parent infant relationships

Indicators:

Mothers will report improvement in their confidence in parenting
Mothers will report an increase in their enjoyment of parenting
Group facilitator will report improvement in parent child interactions

Strategies:

Conduct weekly support groups for mothers experiencing difficulty
Offer short term home visiting when necessary

Performance Measures:

A yearly survey of group participants will measure mothers perceived improvement in confidence and enjoyment of parenting
Group facilitator will note changes in each participants dyad interactions on a six monthly basis

The Lane Cove group has been running for more than ten years and has developed into a very intensive, therapeutic group. Participants all have regular contact with an individual practitioner, such as a psychiatrist or GP, who monitor their mental health.

The group provides a safe place for the women to:

Share their stories and realise they are not alone in their struggle
think about how their individual histories and experiences might impact on their ability to develop a good relationship with their child
come to terms with past traumas and manage the effects of them, so that they are less likely to be re-enacted in their relationship with their child

Women in the group are reporting:

Increased ability to manage the day to day stresses of parenting
Decrease in their anxiety, depression and stress
Improvement in their relationship with their child
Improvement in relationships in general

Immediate Community Benefits

less strain on hospital system/less admissions/readmissions to hospital
less child abuse
less family breakdown

Long Term Community Benefits
Early experiences affect physical and social development, the ability to learn, and the capacity to regulate emotions through the stimulation of the sensing pathways.

A lack of stimulation, or negative stresses [in extremes] can result in poor brain development so that babies who have been neglected or abused are more likely to grow up experiencing poor physical and mental health, drug and alcohol dependence, a lower standard of education, unemployment and crime.
Early intervention programs have been found to provide psychological and social benefits to children, families and communities. These include: higher rates of employment and skill levels in mothers; decreased welfare expenditure; increased school performance; a lower rate of criminality

Evidence has emerged that an investment in the health and development of young children while producing social benefits will also produce economic benefits, particularly associated with a decreased need for services

Ongoing Evaluation is via:

1. Program evaluation - data gathered through self-report by parents

2. Action research - ongoing process of reflecting and feeding back which facilitates modification and improvement of the project during development so that the needs of women in the project are better addressed