Patricia Day

Coping with our kids

This article describes the content, delivery, evaluation and dissemination of a programme which, over a period of seven years, has been central to a mental health promotion strategy. The programme was the response of two school nurses to the devastating effects of mental health disorder on family life. They developed a practical and simple parenting programme, devised a four week course called ‘Coping with Our Kids’ based on the work of Carolyn Webster-Stratton (1992). A distinguishing element of the course has been its emphasis on groupwork, through which many parents have developed the commitment and motivation to strengthen their parenting skills. Extensive evaluation of the Webster-Stratton approach has shown greatly improved outcomes for children with behaviour and emotional problems (Scott et al, 2001 and Patterson et al., 2002).