Culturally Responsive Counselling for Parents | Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Lab

Program Evaluation of the CARES Program

What was this project about?

Experiences of stress impact parents’ mental health and their capacity to support their children’s needs. The South Asian Autism Awareness Centre (SAAAC) in Scarborough developed an intervention to address the need for culturally responsive mental health care for parents of autistic children. The SAAAC CARES (Counselling, Assistance, Reinforcement and Empowerment Services) program is a volunteer-run, group-based counselling service for parents in the South Asian community. Volunteers from the South Asian community were selected based on their experience working with vulnerable populations and were preferably matched with groups of 2–6 parents with whom they were able to communicate in their first language. Groups met for six-sessions where they discussed understanding and accepting their child’s diagnosis, coping skills, and goal setting.

How did we do this project?

At the SAAAC, parent participants completed questionnaires before and after the CARES program to assess changes in mental health, family distress, and quality of life. Additionally, parents completed brief surveys at each of the six sessions to evaluate satisfaction with the program. Starting in 2018, staff at SAAAC began collaborating with Dr. Jonathan Weiss on a program evaluation of the CARES program using these measures. This project evaluated the program’s clinical utility (feasibility and preliminary effectiveness).

What did we do with our research findings?

Through collaboration with SAAAC, findings from this study provided evidence of high program satisfaction across sessions. Participating parents also reported improved mental health and quality of life as well as lower levels of family distress and parental stress after completing the program. An article summarizing these findings has been published in an academic journal and findings were presented at an academic conference.

Results

Mills, A. S., Vimalakanthan, K., Sivapalan, S., Shanmugalingam, N., & Weiss, J. A. (2021). Brief Report: Preliminary Outcomes of a Peer Counselling Program for Parents of Children with Autism in the South Asian Community. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(1), 334–340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04538-9.

Mills, A., & Weiss, J. A. (2020, April). Program evaluation of a peer counselling program for parents of children with autism in the South Asian Community [Online Poster Presentation]. The 54thAnnual Gatlinburg Conference (virtual conference).

Mills, A., & Weiss, J. A. (2020, May). Preliminary outcomes of a culturally responsive peer counselling program for parents of children with autism in the South Asian Community [Poster Presentation]. The International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) 2020 Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA. (Conference cancelled).

Want to know more about this project?

For more information, please feel free to contact Dr. Jonathan Weiss, Principal Investigator on the study, at jonweiss@yorku.ca.

This project was funded by a LaMarsh Graduate Student Research Award and by the York Research Chair in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disability.