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WHO Parents Skills Training (PST) programme for children with developmental disorders and delays delivered by Family

S U Hamdani1, P Akhtar1, Zill-E-Huma1

  • 1Human Development Research Foundation, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Global Mental Health (Cambridge, England)
|December 13, 2017
PubMed

Insights

This study evaluated a parent skills training program for children with developmental delays in Pakistan, delivered by family volunteers using a tablet-based app. The program showed promise for improving child functioning and implementation in low-resource settings.

Area of Science:

  • Global child mental health
  • Developmental pediatrics
  • Public health interventions

Background:

  • Developmental disorders and delays are a global public health priority, included in the WHO mental health gap action programme (mhGAP).
  • Parent Skills Training (PST) is a recommended intervention for these conditions, but scalable delivery remains a challenge.
  • This study focuses on adapting and implementing the WHO PST program in rural Pakistan.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the effectiveness of a locally adapted WHO PST program delivered by family volunteers.
  • To assess the scaled-up implementation of this evidence-based intervention in a low-resource setting.
  • To explore the integration of technological and social innovations for sustainable public mental health delivery.

Main Methods:

  • A two-arm, single-blind, effectiveness-implementation-hybrid cluster randomized controlled trial involving 540 parent-child dyads.
  • Intervention: WHO PST delivered by family volunteers via an Android application on a tablet.
  • Primary outcome: Child's functioning (WHODAS-Child) at 6 months. Secondary outcomes: social communication, emotional well-being, parental quality of life, family empowerment, and stigmatizing experiences.

Main Results:

  • The study is designed to measure the impact of the PST program on child functioning and other key outcomes.
  • Implementation outcomes will be collected using mixed methods to assess feasibility and scalability.
  • Results will inform the potential for widespread adoption of this intervention model.

Conclusions:

  • The study integrates evidence-based interventions with social, technological, and business innovations to address real-world implementation challenges.
  • Successful outcomes could lead to scaled-up implementation of evidence-based mental health packages in low-resource settings.
  • This research contributes to improving access to care for children with developmental disorders globally.
Abstract

Keywords:
Autism spectrum disorderschild mental healthdevelopmental disordersfamily volunteersglobal mental healthimplementation effectiveness hybrid trialintellectual disabilitylow income settingsmental health gapparent skills trainingtechnology assisted training and supervision

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