Empowering Southwark's Parents project on BBC Radio 4

A parent-led project to tackle the high rates of childhood mental illness in inner city areas has led to a significant reduction in child-behaviour problems. The results compare favourably with trials involving professional therapists and the project will feature on BBC Radio 4's 'All in the Mind' programme tonight.

Southwark, like many inner city areas, has twice the national rate of severe childhood mental health problems.  And the Empowering Parents and Empowering Communities (EPEC) project, run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, sees local parents trained by experts so they can go on to teach other local parents basic psychology on bringing up confident, happy children. 

Effective, early intervention in a child's mental health problems - particularly by parents - can lead to dramatic improvements in the child's condition.  The twenty four local parents have completed 10 weeks of training as 'peer-facilitators', and have already run forty, eight-week-long, 'Being a Parent' groups with 348 parents completing the course so far. 

The Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, is evaluating the project and interim results show a significant reduction in the severity of child mental health problems reported by parents.  Moreover, the improvement in child behaviour compares favourably with trials involving professional therapists.

 The 'Being a Parent' courses are aimed at local parents with children experiencing mental health difficulties - particularly parents who find specialist hospital services difficult to access.  Many also find the courses less stigmatising and more effective because they are run by trained local people in similar circumstances to themselves. 

The project is a strong example of the Government's Big Society in action.  The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust simply marshals its mental health expertise and the local parents do the rest.

Caroline Penney, Specialist Trainer at SLaM, recently returned from training colleagues in Australia on the project said: "The parenting skills we're passing on are having a real impact on the mental health of children in Southwark.  By rolling this project out across the country, and abroad, we think we can significantly reduce the number of children suffering poor mental health."

EPEC is run by the Centre for Parent and Child Support, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and is funded for two years by Guy's and St Thomas' Charity with a £225,000 grant and by the London Borough of Southwark.  The project is being evaluated by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.