CARE: The development of an intervention for kinship carers with teenage children

The study addresses the needs of Scottish kinship carers of teenage children who have been identified as being in need of extra support. It designs and tests an appropriate support programme, defined as CARE. The CARE intervention study reported here applied the Six Steps for Quality Intervention Development framework, a pragmatic, evidence-based framework. The Six Steps for Quality Intervention Development framework comprises six steps: the first three steps seek to reveal the concerns of the kinship carer group and to generate a theory of change; the remaining three steps generate a theory of action for the intervention, and subsequently for its implementation. There were three main benefits reported: first, the self-care techniques had a reportedly positive stress-reduction effect on kinship carers, and in their dealings with their teenager; second, kinship carers reported an increased self-awareness of their communication or 'connectedness' with their teenager; and third, there was a reported positive impact upon behaviour control as a result of the stress-reduction and improved connectedness. The development of the CARE intervention programme suggests that the Six Steps in Quality Intervention Development provides a useful methodological underpinning for intervention procedures which can be applied in a range of public health and social work settings.