Parent Connext

The Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children has partnered with Beech Acres Parenting Center and TriHealth to implement the Parent Connext program within nine pediatric primary care practices over three years, through a grant funded by Bethesda, Inc. Half of children in Greater Cincinnati experience adversity in childhood that has the potential to negatively affect their brain development and long-term health. The Parent Connext program aims to improve child health and family life by integrating parenting services within pediatric primary care practices and equipping parents with resources and skills that strengthen their resilience and capacity to build a safe and nurturing environment for their child. Pediatricians screen for parenting challenges and psychosocial adversity during well-child visits and connect families with parenting specialists located on-site within the practice. The parenting specialists provide one-on-one consultations with families and help to CONNECT parents to community resources and provide at least one clear NEXT step to their parenting challenges.

Child Adult Relationship Enhancement

Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) is a six hour skill-based training delivered in one-six sessions designed to enhance the child-adult relationship for children with trauma histories by creating a responsive, stable relationship with their caregiver. The Mayerson Center partnered with Lighthouse Youth Services Foster Care and Adoption Network to perform a randomized controlled trial comparing CARE training to standard parenting training for foster caregivers with a foster child between 3 to 12 years of age. In comparison to the standard training, foster caregivers who received CARE training demonstrated significant improvements in their observed parenting behaviors one month later, and fewer anxiety symptoms in their children three months later. Foster children in both groups showed significant decreases in anger/aggression and post-traumatic stress arousal over time. These preliminary findings suggest effective delivery of CARE can occur within the context of existing mandated foster care training programs, and can provide foster caregivers with tangible skills that improve their parenting and their foster child’s emotional well-being.