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Evaluating the impact of a community–based parent training programme for children with cerebral palsy in Ghana

ZUURMOND, Maria
et al
January 2017

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"Cerebral palsy is the most common cause of physical disability in children worldwide, and yet in most low resource settings there are few services available to support children with cerebral palsy or their families. Research is required to understand the effectiveness of community and/or home based programmes to address this gap. This 2-year study aimed to evaluate a participatory caregiver training programme called ‘Getting to know cerebral palsy’ in Ghana. The training programme consisted of a monthly half-day support group with training, and a home visit, delivered across eight sites in Ghana over 10 months. A total of 76 families and children were included at baseline and 64 families followed up one year later at endline. Children were aged between 18months and 12 years with a mean of 3.8 years and a range of severity of cerebral palsy. Nearly all (97%) the caregivers were female and the father was absent in 51% of families. The study was a pre-post intervention design using mixed methods to evaluate the impact. A baseline and endline quantitative survey was conducted to assess caregiver quality of life (QoL) and knowledge about cerebral palsy and child feeding, health, and nutrition outcomes. Qualitative data was collected to explore the impact and experiences of the training programme in more depth".

Getting to know cerebral palsy|Working with parent groups : a training resource for facilitators, parents, caregivers, and persons with cerebral palsy

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR EVIDENCE IN DISABILITY (ICED)
et al
2013

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This manual aims to increase knowledge and skills in caring for a child with cerebral palsy. Research highlighted the significant needs of the caregivers, and how they can gain a huge amount of support from meeting with each other in an understanding environment. The manual is divided into 11 modules and promotes a participatory learning approach with an emphasis on the empowerment of parents and caregivers. It provides an opportunity for parents to organise themselves and to consider strategies at the community level to address some of the issues which affect them and their child
Note: An online community that aims to support practitioners share their learning and experiences around the parent training manual is available from the weblink. Members can share questions and perspectives, news items and resources with eachother via email or through a community website

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