P0053 - Parenting in a Pandemic: An Innovative Virtual Support Forum for Families Living in Homeless Shelters

Background: Over 700,000 children experience abuse in the US annually. Reported and substantiated cases of child abuse increase in the months following disasters. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased known risk factors for child abuse, including financial hardship, unemployment, increased anxiety, increased caregiver responsibilities, and decreased access to behavioral health services and community resources. Children and families already facing homelessness prior to the pandemic may be at especially heightened risk of child maltreatment.

The Homeless Health Initiative (HHI) was developed by pediatrics residents and is now a multifaceted advocacy network supporting local, urban homeless shelters that is funded and staffed by our institution. PriCARE is a positive parenting program also funded and staffed by our institution. Both HHI and PriCARE had to suspend in-person services due to the COVID-19 pandemic at a time when families may most need additional support.

Online parenting support programs have demonstrated significant reductions in negative parent-child interactions, problematic child behaviors, negative disciplinary methods, parent stress and depression, and child anxiety. Therefore, the multidisciplinary team members that serve families through HHI and PriCARE sought to develop a virtual platform to provide their support.

Methodology: The goal of this initiative is to establish a multidisciplinary virtual program for families experiencing homelessness that provides trauma-informed, positive parenting support, promotion of healthy parent-child relationships, relevant illness and injury prevention tips, and anticipatory guidance for families coping during a pandemic. We completed a needs assessment through ongoing communication with families and workers at the shelters. Various stakeholders, including experts in child abuse prevention, intimate partner violence, and positive parenting, worked together to develop supportive materials for families related to the above topics. We conducted virtual sessions including members of each participating stakeholder in an open-ended format guided by participants’ concerns, both previously submitted and in real-time, to provide support and develop family-centered programming. Our platform was compatible with phones distributed to shelter residents by the city during the pandemic to facilitate open access. To supplement virtual content, we also distributed accompanying resources for reinforcement. Further development of this initiative is ongoing with iterative plan/do/study/act (PDSA) cycles. Anonymous feedback from shelter residents and session leader debriefs are integral in guiding our modifications.

Discussion: The delivery of our material via video conferencing and written handouts is practical, feasible, and respectful of physical distancing recommendations. We are continuing to improve this initiative in response to feedback. In addition, we plan to integrate this interdisciplinary model focusing on positive parenting into our in-person sessions when it is appropriate to resume them.

Conclusions: By working with all relevant stakeholders, we developed a plan to provide services to families living in homeless shelters via a virtual platform that responds to and is flexible to their needs.