The Multi-Family Approach to facilitate a family support network for Palestinian parents of children with a disability : a descriptive study
Background
Families with a child who has a disability have extra difficulties, particularly when services are hard to reach or less available. In a collaborative project, the Institute of Community and Public Health, the Palestinian community-based rehabilitation programme, and international non-governmental organisations cooperated to share and develop expertise and knowledge on increasing families' resilience through establishing family groups. This contribution focuses on the use of the Multi-Family Approach (MFA) in a Palestinian context. MFA is a family-oriented method provided in a group setting. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of implementing the intervention and the experiences gained by introducing the MFA in the West Bank.
Methods
Parents taking the MFA approach learn from other parents by sharing experiences. Allowing parents to examine communalities and contrasts increases social support and parenting skills and decrease stress reactions. A high turnover of exercises and activities facilitate pleasant interactions. The basic principles of MFA are derived from both group and family interventions. Adjusting MFA entailed training of community-based rehabilitation teams (supervisors, field workers, and volunteers) through a learning-by-doing principle and employed a comparable strategy and structure to MFA. MFA was introduced and practiced, and early experiences were used to rehearse and elaborate. Training experiences were monitored and reflected upon within the team. A manual was written as a collaborative activity. No additional ethical approval was necessary. This project did not encompass the involvement, assessment, or monitoring of families or family members. The trainees participated on a voluntary base.
Findings
Qualitative analyses of the monitoring reports from the training sessions show that MFA is feasible for families with a child with a disability in the West Bank but that organisational, translational, and cultural adjustments are needed for MFA to be suitable within a Palestinian context.
Interpretation
MFA proved appropriate for the Palestinian setting. Most of the workers in the community-based rehabilitation programme and group participants were comfortable with the approach and adopted it within communities.
In: The Lancet, ISSN 2542-5196 | 391 | Special Issue 2 | February | S49
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30415-X