St. Louis, May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ST. LOUIS, MO - May 17, 2022 - May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and parental mental health has an impact on how children develop. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) parents who have their mental health challenges, such as coping with symptoms of depression or anxiety (fear or worry), may have more difficulty providing care for their child compared to parents who describe their mental health as good.
But it’s not all bad news. Focused intervention, like that provided by Parents as Teachers (PAT), the nation’s most replicated early childhood home visiting and parenting education model, can help struggling parents by providing them with support and coping skills to parents and can make a significant difference in reducing the risk of abuse in these circumstances.
“Being a new parent is challenging, and it can be difficult to prioritize your own mental health when caring for an infant or toddler,” says PAT President and Chief Executive Officer Constance Gully, who herself enrolled in PAT’s home visiting program as a new mother more than 20 years ago.
“We employ Parent Educators, who are trained professionals who make regular home visits with new parents to serve as mentors who offer friendly, reassuring support and expert guidance,” Gully said, adding, “their intervention helps parents incorporate strategies that are good for both the child and caregiver. This has an overall positive impact on the whole family.”
PAT Parent Educators also provide information and resources to help parents gain a deeper understanding of the emotional, behavioral, and physical developmental stages of their children. They help promote parental resilience and connect families to resources if needed, which has been shown to reduce the risk of child abuse.
Since 1984, Parents As Teachers has provided support for parents of very young children who would benefit from expert guidance on a range of emotional, physical, and educational issues facing their kids. PAT builds healthy communities, thriving families, and children that are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. It matches parents and caregivers with trained professionals who make regular personal home visits during a child’s earliest years in life, from pregnancy through kindergarten.
The internationally recognized evidence-based home visiting model is backed by 38 years of research-proven outcomes for children and families. PAT currently serves 200,000 families in all 50 U.S. states, 115 Tribal organizations, five other countries, and one U.S. territory. Parents as Teachers National Center, Inc., is a non-profit organization headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased stress on financially insecure families with young children, including by increasing the risk of physical and psychological abuse. Every parent of an infant or toddler is likely to have feelings of stress, isolation, or fear about exposing their unvaccinated little ones to COVID. These stressors are even more significant in households that have suffered financially because of job loss during the pandemic.
There are 1,300 PAT affiliates across the country and abroad who can also speak to how home visiting has helped parents. For more information, please reach out to Eric L. Clark, Eric.Clark@ParentsAsTeachers.org.
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