More than 30,000 parents have attended Positive Parenting Programme: MSF

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SINGAPORE: More than 30,000 parents have benefitted from the Positive Parenting Programme, which teaches them techniques to manage their children’s behaviour, said Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Social and Family Development Eric Chua on Wednesday (Mar 3).

 

The “evidence-based” programme, also known as Triple P, was first piloted in 2014 and has since been rolled out at schools and social service agencies islandwide.

 

It is currently available via an e-learning platform or over Zoom, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Triple P has been proven to be effective, with parents reporting sustained reduction of around 20 per cent in both their children’s problematic behaviour scores and parenting stress scores three months after completing the programme,” said Mr Chua.

The parenting programme is one of the ways in which the ministry is working to promote youth mental health awareness, and better equip parents to support these youth, said Mr Chua, in response to a parliamentary question by MP Carrie Tan (PAP-Nee Soon).

These efforts come especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has “posed new challenges and highlighted the importance of strengthening the mental health and well-being of our youths”, he said.

 

Mr Chua also noted that additional digital resources were developed amid the pandemic to support parents. This includes a dedicated website that provides resources and tools for caregivers.

 

For families who need more assistance, an online counselling service was set up in April last year by the ministry and the Community Psychology Hub.

This service helped more than 1,200 clients last year, Mr Chua noted.

 

“We will continue to work together with other agencies and community partners to help parents better support their children’s mental health and well-being,” he said.

 

 

 

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