The Virtual Irie Homes Toolbox: Adaptation and remote delivery of an early childhood, violence prevention, parenting program in Jamaica

In response to the global pandemic, we adapted a Jamaican early childhood, violence-prevention, parenting program (the Irie Homes Toolbox (IHT)) for virtual delivery. The resultant virtual IHT (vIHT) is a 10-week program that consists of weekly, one-hour, virtual group parenting sessions and e-summary sent via WhatsApp, three SMS messages/week and access to a data-free app. The vIHT was implemented with 557 Jamaican caregivers of children aged two-to-six years with virtual groups conducted by government officers. We conducted an ongoing process evaluation to identify enablers and barriers to implementation. Key enablers included high compliance by government officers in conducting virtual sessions, sessions were implemented with adequate levels of quality, 90% participants read the SMS/WhatsApp messages and 79% attended at least one virtual group with 52% attending five or more. Barriers included poor internet connectivity, difficulty navigating the online environment, low usage of the App and inconsistent caregiver attendance at virtual sessions.