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Healthy Start, Happy start is a randomised controlled trial that tested the clinical- and cost-effectiveness of a brief parenting programme - Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD).

VIPP-SD aims to promote parental sensitivity and sensitive discipline by using videos of caregivers and their children to highlight positive moments and provide tips for challenging behaviours.

300 families were recruited into the trial from 6 NHS Trusts, including Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, Whittington Health NHS Trust, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, North East London Foundation Trust and Hertfordshire Community Trust.

Important highlights from the early study findings include:

  • The programme appears to be most helpful for those more challenging moments young children experience like tantrums and refusals
  • Feedback from families about the programme was positive
  • Therapists delivering the programme were able to complete almost all of the visits (94%). This indicates the programme may be possible to deliver as part of a wider caseload.

For more information on the study, A Brief Home-Based Parenting Intervention to Reduce Behaviour Problems in Young Children.

To watch a study summary.

 

Professor Alan Stein, co-investigator and co-author on the study, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, said:

 

'This large treatment trial involving over 300 families showed that a home-based intervention was able to reduce and prevent behavioural problems in young children. This is particularly important because the intervention was delivered within NHS health visiting services, which means it could potentially be made widely available.'

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