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PIPPIN (Parents In Partnership - Parent Infant Network) is a National Charity whose main aim is to maintain and improve the emotional health of families through one of the most critical stages in people's lives - the period surrounding the birth of a new baby. Excellent training is key to this. PIPPIN trained facilitators are introducing parenting classes as standalone courses and integrated with conventional Parentcraft classes in many parts of the country. PIPPIN's aim is to see these classes available to parents all over Britain. We have developed, rigorously tested and continue to refine our range of courses. We provide people from all areas of healthcare and care - for example, midwives and health visitors; family and social workers; childbirth and parenting educators and counsellors; nursery nurses and childcare workers - with specialist training to equip them more effectively for facilitating the early parenting process via routine care, visits and parenting classes. The training is to a professional level, and can lead to a range of recognised qualifications (at further and higher education levels) for professionals and parents to become themselves facilitators and trainers.
Whats special about PIPPIN's philosophy? Is PIPPIN targeted at disadvantaged families? What makes PIPPIN's approach different? Aren't conventional parenting classes enough? Is PIPPIN's impact just for the early months? Why is it worth investing in PIPPIN training? Are PIPPIN classes measurably effective? What do professionals think of PIPPIN? Can we integrate PIPPIN easily into the parenting initiative we have already? What classes are available for parents?
OUR
VISION...
OUR
MISSION...
Providing strategies and tactics to cope well with a new baby not only means significantly reducing the risk of an unhappy start to a new or growing family, but also greatly increases parents' self-confidence and self esteem for the challenges of the years ahead.
PIPPIN approaches are not prescriptive; they do not promote specific models of families, but do promote ways of adapting to cultural diversity and the many different shapes of families, so that parents from any background can give their baby the best emotional start in life.
Traditional Parentcraft classes tend to focus on the mother, and are often clear lessons in what to do and how to do it. PIPPIN classes are run quite differently, in a supportive atmosphere, not as instructional classes. Focusing on the nuts and bolts, and the practical aspects of pregnancy labour, birth and care of their newborn baby, is simply not enough. Men and women need help to be able to respond to and cope with the issues and changes that arise with having a baby. They need to recognise and develop their listening skills. They need to develop healthy ways of communicating with their partners and babies. PIPPIN provides real depth. It focuses on the emotional and psychological needs of the family as a whole, on all the relationships, not just looking after baby. It adds an essential dimension missing from most classes for new parents. And the insights families gain can greatly help them too with problems often seen as mainly physical, such as crying, feeding and sleeping.
IS
PIPPIN'S IMPACT JUST FOR THE EARLY MONTHS?
With PIPPIN, you can take "new parents" out of a very specific and limiting pigeonhole, and place the arrival of a new baby in the wider context of relationships, roles and responsibilities.
WHY
IS IT WORTH INVESTING IN PIPPIN TRAINING? The evidence is that children whose parents have attended PIPPIN classes are more likely to enjoy "secure attachment" to their parents. This is fundamentally important early on and in later years - children who have secure attachments are less likely to be disruptive and anti-social. There is a heavy cost attached to children who are not securely attached: both in human and financial terms to their families, social services, schools, healthcare and sometimes the prison service, investing in methods which encourage secure attachments saves extraordinary expenses in the long term. From the point of view of any organisation involved in community health, the dividends from investing in PIPPIN are clear. There are some hard measures that can be applied over a short time. There are measures that will take longer to assess. For example, the time when a new baby arrives is typically a time when marriages are at great risk, and the risk only diminishes after a child is about three. PIPPIN itself is too young for long term longitudinal studies to show evidence of its effect over more than a few years. However, it is our intention to continue monitoring the effectiveness of our approach and how it impacts on families in the long term. PIPPIN stands for proven preventative help at a very important stage. For example, it may avoid the possibility or reduce the impact of a mother or father suffering from depression - today a regular problem which absorbs large amounts of resources and money.
PIPPIN's reputation is also growing internationally. The Expert Committee for the European Regional Council of the World Federation for Mental Health commended PIPPIN as an example of excellence in its 1998/9 report, as part of work carried out by a Health Education Authority Project for the Promotion of the Mental Health of Children Aged 0-6 years. PIPPIN continually receives a favourable press in leading professional publications. PIPPIN
is represented on a number of advisory groups, and works with many NHS
Trusts, other charities and leading organisations including: On a local level, wherever people see it, PIPPIN's work is highly regarded by practitioners, their colleagues and employers, and in academic circles. Research shows that PIPPIN classes are cost-effective and make a significant impact on outcomes. There is tremendous personal enthusiasm for PIPPIN's methods. The reaction we get from most health visitors and midwives when they first come into contact with PIPPIN's ideas and methods are comments like "I wish I'd had this knowledge years ago ...", "This is the way I feel I should be working", "This feels right", "PIPPIN fills a great gap in my knowledge and the service I've been providing my clients", "This is why I came into the health service".
CAN
WE INTEGRATE PIPPIN EASILY INTO THE PARENTING INITIATIVE WE HAVE ALREADY? PIPPIN trained health visitors and midwives report that it has become easier for them to work together and help their clients to a better family start. They also find it valuable to gain knowledge about other disciplines in health care, so that they themselves feel less isolated professionally.
WHAT ADVICE DO PARENTS GET?
PIPPIN does not prescribe any particular way of parenting or any one way of dealing with issues or problems that arise. Programmes include communication and problem solving skills for coping with family life. Where couples are involved in a programme, communication skills extend to supporting a couple and parent-parent relationship.
WHAT
CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR PARENTS?
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