Practice Profile Overview
ParentingWell® is an approach to routine practice that makes talking about parenting, children, and family experiences a natural part of the conversation and of an adult’s recovery process.
Recovery does not occur in isolation. Family can motivate change. Family members can encourage and support individuals to seek help. Parenting provides opportunities to be part of a community—in the neighborhood or through participation at children’s school events, for example. ParentingWell also promotes a parent’s ability to live interdependently and to pursue recovery in the context of family life.
The ParentingWell practice approach promotes opportunities to conduct family-focused conversations, generate a family-informed service plan, or simply provide services to an adult living with a mental health condition or addiction while taking parenting and family circumstances into account. Just as you might routinely ask friends of other social supports about housing, school or employment, it is important to ask:
- Do you want to be a parent?
- How are parenting and family experiences going?
- How would parents like things to be?
ParentingWell is a versatile, responsive approach to a parent’s situation and needs across the lifespan— meeting the parent “where they’re at,” when they’re ready. You can implement conversations focusing on parenting and family life in an initial assessment or through the context of an ongoing relationship when the timing seems right and the parent is willing and able.
The initial objective of ParentingWell is achieved when the practitioner and parent work together to identify a parenting- or family-related goal and develop an action plan with steps for achieving this goal. Together, you can monitor progress and adjust the plan as necessary to ensure success.
The goal may become part of the larger plan for parent services. We hope that parenting and family life become an organic part of the conversation over time. The key underlying principles of ParentingWell reflect a set of values shared by practitioners across service sectors: family-focused, culturally sensitive, strengths-based, and trauma-informed.
