Development of a Parent Mentor Training Program in Japan

Background: Parent to parent programs have come to be widely recognized as an effective means of supporting parents of children who have special needs. Similarly in Japan, "parent mentors,” parents of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and/or other developmental disabilities (ODD), have been engaging in supporting other parents. Parent mentor activities include telephone, one-on-one, and group counseling services. Parent mentors also provide outreach services such as lectures on disabilities and simulation activities. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare indicates the importance of parent mentor activities and training programs in the context of providing family-centered services. The authors have been working with parent mentors by providing support for their activities and developing a Parent Mentor Training Program (PMTP).

Objectives: The objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive PMTP. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of the PMTP by conducting a pre- and post-survey on basic and follow-up training programs. 

Methods: Participants included a total of 203 parents of individuals with ASD and/or ODD. The two-day basic program included; 1) a lecture on ASD and ODD, 2) a workshop on local resources of social welfare, 3) a lecture on basic counseling techniques, 4) a role-play session on one-on-one counseling. The two–day follow-up program, for those who had received the basic program, included; 1) a lecture with the last updated information on administration and education, 2) a lecture on intermediate counseling techniques, 3) a role-play session on telephone and group counseling. The authors made a questionnaire on 5-point Likert scale, consisting of 20 items and 4 subscales: 1) skills and attitudes, 2) topics of conversation, 3) anxiety and stress, 4) confidence as a parent mentor. Positive scores on this questionnaire indicated high level of aptitude/competence as a parent mentor. The participants answered the questionnaire before and after each program. 

Results: As for the basic program, the post-test score of items such as “respect for human rights,” “listen carefully,” “feel sad and angry (inverted),” and “sense of self-composure,” significantly increased, whereas the score on “feel stress when talking with clients” tended to decline. Overall, the scores for the follow-up program were higher than those for the basic program. For the follow-up program, the post-test score of the item “respect for human rights” increased, and the scores on “talk on experience” and “feel stress when talking with clients” declined.

Conclusions: We found that the participants obtained knowledge and skills needed to be a parent mentor through the basic and follow-up programs. We also found that the participants were more likely to feel anxiety and stress after the program. This is partly because they could realize the difficulty to talk with their clients through the programs including the role play sessions. We assume that many parent mentors feel anxious when talking with their clients and have difficulty dealing with the stress. It is necessary to find the way to reduce their anxiety and stress by introducing elements of training in stress management into the PMTP.