Early PACT: Early Parenting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
What does Early PACT involve?
Early Parenting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Early PACT) is a new approach to parenting grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The online course, Early PARENT101, involves exploring what matters most to you as a parent and as a person. You explore building a stronger relationship with your child, building a rich, rewarding life, and coping with difficult thoughts and feelings. Early PARENT101 is based on online educational courses and uses the platform edX, which is used by universities across the world. Early PARENT101 is a six-week course with a review lesson one month later. The course will take approximately 1 hour per week to complete but this will vary person to person. Completion of the course content is flexible; participants will work through the course content at their own pace within the timeframe. Early PARENT101 includes short videos, online activities, and experimenting with the content in your daily life. You can also choose to access an optional discussion board. You will touch base with a psychologist via video conference or phone to help you apply the content. This can be brief (e.g. 5 minutes) or lengthy (e.g. 30 minutes) depending on your needs. You will also have the opportunity to provide feedback about all aspects of the course.
How will participation benefit me?
By participating, you will get early access to an innovative new online course. You will also play a valuable role in evaluating the usefulness of the course.
Is there likely to be a benefit to other people in the future?
Yes! With your help, we hope to develop Early PARENT101 into an effective and useful online parenting support package. We will be making Early PARENT101 accessible to parents of children with cerebral palsy across the world.
Are there any risks to participation?
Early PARENT101 involves exploring your relationship with your child as well as your own happiness and well-being. It also includes ideas that you might find strange at first, so you need to be willing to explore these topics and to experiment with ideas that might be new to you. Should you choose to participate in the discussion board and use your name, it is possible other participants will identify you, so we encourage participants to use a screen name that is not identifiable to others. Apart from that, this study contains no risks beyond everyday living. If participation raises any concerns for you these are some potential sources of assistance:
beyondblue: 1300 22 4636 Lifeline: 13 11 14 PANDA: 1300 726 306 Your local GP
Contact
For more information about Early PACT and for all questions, please email us at earlypact@uq.edu.au.
