In this activity, families are taught problem solving skills to improve their ability to address issues that arise in their family (e.g. family conflict, finding needed services).
Parents should be taught how to:
Program facilitators use teaching materials and hands on training to help families identify problems and solve them in a healthy manner.
Supporting families to develop problem-solving skills can be conducted in a number of different ways. The approach taken and the focus of this skill development should be tailored the family’s needs. You should use your professional judgement to determine what is most appropriate for your client/s.
Developing problem solving skills can embedded throughout all home visits or group sessions. It may inform all the work that is undertaken with a family. You could also set aside specific sessions that focus on problem solving.
A combination of home visits and groups sessions can also be conducted. The structure of the program should depend on client needs. For example, a home visiting program could use group sessions to reinforce messages taught in home visits or to connect parents with other families. A group program could use home visits to follow up with families who require more assistance.
Parents can complete a daily diary to record problems that arise in their family and how they responded to them.
The diary entry should be discussed with a practitioner in regular home visits. Discuss the parents' response, provide constructive feedback and identify ways to improve.
This flexible activity has been implemented with a number of different target groups. Key characteristics include:
Reduction in barriers to attendance: Attending sessions out of the home can be low for some programs due to psychological and logistical barriers for parents (e.g. childcare and transportation). To address these issues, service providers should consider providing day care, dinners, flexible evening hours, make- up sessions or delivering sessions in convenient locations (e.g. local school or preschool children attend).
20 Feb 2023
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.
You can access our apology to the Stolen Generations.