Parents Plus is a charity on a mission to strengthen family relationships and achieve the best possible outcomes for children, young people, and parents. We develop evidence-based parenting and mental health programmes in collaboration with families and services and train practitioners to deliver and evaluate these programmes in their organisations and communities, building the capacity of community, mental health, disability, and education services in Ireland and the UK.
How We Work
Our approach embeds evidence-based practices in services, equips teams with solution-focused practice skills, reduces waiting lists, and improves parent engagement. The programmes create lasting, positive outcomes for families, communities, and services.
As a charity, all profits from training and materials are reinvested into developing new programmes to meet evolving family needs and sponsoring training and mentoring for services with limited-funding supporting high-need families.
After training, practitioners join our Community of Practice, where they receive ongoing mentoring and support with programme implementation and delivery as well as access to additional resources. We believe that continued support is key to successful programme delivery and achieving positive outcomes for children, young people, and families. The Parents Plus Community of Practice is highly-valued by practitioners once they train.
We collaborate with, train, and support a diverse range of professionals working with children, young people, and families.
Professor Alan Carr sits as a Research Advisor to Parents Plus. His research programme has focused on the evaluation of psychological interventions for a range of problems, including research on the Parents Plus programmes. He has produced over 20 volumes and 200 research papers and presentations in the areas of clinical psychology, family therapy and positive psychology.
“The work done to date by Parents Plus for Irish society and child and family mental health and well-being is extraordinary. It has transformed the lives of thousands of families and done this on a shoestring budget. When the charity first began, Irish mental health and social care services were using North American or Australian parent training programmes that were not tailored to the needs of Irish families, were designed for delivery by trainers with professional backgrounds, and were very expensive, meaning many services could not afford them. Parents Plus changed all this.
This remarkable organisation created a suite of affordable interventions designed to meet the unique needs of Irish families, that could be delivered by both professionals and paraprofessional community leaders. They developed partnerships with universities and evaluated the effectiveness of their programmes in Irish communities. Parents Plus programmes are evidence-based and research-informed. They are grounded in family-friendly, solution-focused, strengths-based practice.
Because the costs of training trainers to deliver Parents Plus programmes is considerably lower than non-Irish alternatives, these parent training programmes are more widely available to a range of services supporting families. In other countries such as the UK and the USA with better developed funding systems for psychological research, Parents Plus, would attract significant funding for theoretical groundwork, randomised controlled trials, and replications of these trials by other research teams. The absence of these supports in Ireland makes the achievements of Parents Plus all the more remarkable.”
“Parents Plus programmes have helped us to support families experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties. Parents have reported vast improvements in relationships with their children and in their own skills in parenting. Teachers have also observed corresponding improvements in the behaviours and social interactions of the children whose parents attend the Parents Plus course.”
Patrick Kinsella, Teacher, St. Peter’s Primary School, Wicklow
“The Parents Plus programmes are effective in providing parents with support and achieving the best outcomes. The training also provides knowledge and skills which are applicable to everyday practice, whilst the programmes are organised, and easy to run.”
Marguerite Lehane, Social Worker, H.S.E. CAMHS, Cork
“We had a waiting list of more than six months for young people waiting for counselling, and anxious parents also looking for support. Since running the Parents Plus Programmes our waiting list has reduced enormously and young people are discussing the improvements they feel at home, as they now feel supported and listened to.”
Niamh Kelly, Squashy Couch Adolescent Health and Information Project, Waterford
“We have observed first-hand the success of the Parents Plus for parents. Many parents had attended other parenting courses, and all of them felt Parents Plus was different and that they learnt so much more. A lot of other parents are keen to attend now due to these parents telling them of how Parents Plus has changed their lives.”
Rhonda Murphy, Manager, Chance For Change, N.I.
“Parents Plus training has enabled me to be a better teacher. I can now cater to the hidden needs of young people in an informed capacity. It also gives parents the tools to parent effectively, implement discipline at home and manage the many challenges of parenting teenagers. These practices are then reflected in how young people behave in school.”
Yvonne Kiely, Teacher, St. Joseph’s Secondary School, Rush
“Parents Plus makes sense to the parents who participate in the courses that I run. It is respectful to every member of the family and this is part of its success. Parents say they are less stressed and more relaxed with their families after attending the Parents Plus Children’s Programme. The techniques parents learn transform life at home.”
Marion Clarke, Community Development Worker, Ballyhoura Development CLG
“We see the evidence – The Parent Plus Early Years Programme has proven to be very successful and practical for the parents we work with and has become a valuable part of our multi-disciplinary team work. To watch parents believe in themselves again because of the Parents Plus Programmes is so powerful.”
Kathleen O’Hara, H.S.E. Early intervention Team, Mayo
“I’ve used the Adolescent Programme in my every day practice since attending the training. Before I became a Parenting Plus facilitator, I thought I had a good idea of what the best interventions to support families were. Since the training, and being part of implementing the courses in our region in the U.K., I have a more profound and deeper understanding of what it takes to support families to make changes in their life.”
Jon B. Churchill, Family Support Practitioner, Devon County Council, U.K.
Evidence based Parents Plus Healthy Families Programme to launch in Autumn 2020.
Sign up here to receive further information
“As Occupational Therapists we focus on ability rather than disability. Similarly the Parents Plus programmes use a strengths based approach to provide parents with strategies and resources to support their child with additional needs. A lot of the O.T. goals identified by families are centred around independence skills, routines and positive behaviour strategies. The Parents Plus Special Needs programme provides these strategies and resources to help families achieve their goals.”
Molly Fallon, Occupational Therapist, Daughters of Charity Child and Family Service, Dublin
“As a Public Health Nurse, I have facilitated Parents Plus programmes in community settings for the past four years. We have received very positive feedback from parents, and when meeting these parents at a later stage, they often report the programme having ‘changed their lives’. I offer the programme to all parents at their children’s developmental checks, and many report the positive feedback they have also received from their friends who have done the Parents Plus programmes.”
Noreen Gorman, Public Health Nurse, H.S.E., Wicklow
Evidence based Parents Plus Healthy Families Programme to launch in Autumn 2020.
Sign up here to receive further information
“Since training in Parents Plus we now have an excellent resource to reference during access visits to assist us in promoting positive relationships between parents and their children. We also run individual Parents Plus sessions for parents who want to improve and build confidence in their parenting skills. As a result, we have seen improvements in the quality of access visits and parents are more confident in their ability to parent their child in area’s such as discipline and play.”
Jacinta Doyle, Access Worker, TUSLA Contact Service
“The Parents Plus Training has by far had the biggest impact on the way I work as an SLT with children and parents. The biggest change has been learning to become solution focused to empower families to make long term positive changes.”
Ger Buckley, Speech and Language Therapist, H.S.E. CAMHS, Dublin
“Parents Plus programmes provide an evidence based, cost effective, systematic approach, which can be used to support children with a wide variety of issues and their families. When parents use these positive parenting tools, we can prevent issues such as anxiety, social phobia and depression, occurring in children. Moreover, this approach is one of the most helpful methods for many psychiatric conditions and preventing mental health disorders when used in community settings.”
Onur Burak Durson, Professor of Psychiatry, Ataturk University School of Medicine, Turkey
The Parents Plus Programmes
Since 1995, Parents Plus has developed eight evidence-based programmes for services that adapt to diverse family needs. The programmes offer universal support for all families, preventative solutions for disadvantaged and at-risk families, and targeted interventions for high-need families facing complex challenges.
Our Impact and Evidence Base
Professor of Clinical Psychology, Alan Carr, University College Dublin, conducted two meta-analyses of the Parents Plus evidence base, with over 1,000 families in specialist settings. His analysis highlighted the significant benefit for families who attend the Parents Plus courses, both post-treatment and importantly, at follow-up.
The Parents Plus Programmes have a significant impact on:
- reducing child emotion/ behaviour problems.
- reducing parent stress.
- increasing parent satisfaction.
- increasing therapeutic goal achievement.
Meta-Analyses 2015 and 2024
Professor Carr sits as a research advisor to Parents Plus.
“The work done to date by Parents Plus for Irish society and child and family mental health and well-being is extraordinary. It has transformed the lives of thousands of families and done this on a shoestring budget. When the charity first began, Irish mental health and social care services were using North American or Australian parent training programmes that were not tailored to the needs of Irish families, were designed for delivery by trainers with professional backgrounds, and were very expensive, meaning many services could not afford them. Parents Plus changed all this.
This remarkable organisation created a suite of affordable interventions designed to meet the unique needs of Irish families, that could be delivered by both professionals and paraprofessional community leaders. They developed partnerships with universities and evaluated the effectiveness of their programmes in Irish communities. Parents Plus programmes are evidence-based and research-informed. They are grounded in family-friendly, solution-focused, strengths-based practice.”
Parents Plus is a registered charity. We are primarily funded through the sale of programme training and materials and an SSNO grant for national organisations. Occasionally, Parents Plus receives project funding from non-profit organisations and grant-making bodies. The Mater Hospital provides ongoing support of Parents Plus, including the provision of accommodation and training facilities.
Our Partners
