Research suggests that families whose children have learning disabilities (LD) have limited service contact and when they do access professional support, it is unclear what intervention approaches best meet their needs. This thesis explored the service contact of children with LD, controlling for psychiatric diagnosis, and explored parents' views of an IY parenting course intervention. A review explored the key ingredients of parent professional partnership (PPP).
A secondary data analysis of a nationally representative sample of children in the United Kingdom found that children with LD had limited service contact. However, when children with LD had concomitant psychiatric diagnosis, there was no evidence they experienced less contact with specialist mental health services than children without LD. The main correlates of service use were gender, psychiatric diagnosis, LD and maternal emotional disorder. The review of PPP similarly found that providing emotional support to parents was important. Other key themes were negotiating power dynamics, establishing interpersonal relationships and consideration for the child. These themes
were echoed in a focus group with parents who had attended an IY parenting course provided by a Specialist Children's Service. This intervention was effective in reducing some child problem behavior.
The emergent themes are related to the Family-Centered Care (FCC) approach, which includes concepts such as collaborative decision-making, empowerment and partnership.
The discussion paper considers the implications of the thesis findings for engaging parents with services, delivering interventions and refining the theory of FCC.