Understanding the benefits of child-parent psychotherapy delivered via telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

African American families have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Child-parent psychotherapy (CPP) was developed as a dyadic, attachment-based, in-person intervention for parents with young children who have experienced trauma that promotes secure attachment between the parent and child. This case series study evaluates the acceptability of telehealth delivery of CPP by four providers to five African American parent-child dyads during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings revealed that both parents and providers were overall satisfied with the use of telehealth for CPP delivery during the pandemic. The virtual delivery of CPP led to perceived beneficial outcomes for families who experienced trauma and additional stressors during the pandemic. Although the virtual delivery of CPP had its drawbacks, it decreased accessibility barriers such as time and distance. This finding lends support to the acceptability of telehealth delivery of CPP for under-resourced African American families and their providers as well as offers recommendations for improving the virtual delivery of CPP.

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under award UA6MC32492, the Life Course Intervention Research Network. The information, content and/or conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

Disclosure statement

This study was approved by Georgetown University’s Institutional Review Board under protocol number GU-HRP-503. Informed consent was given by all individual participants included in the study. All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of APA ethical standards, Georgetown University Institutional Review Board ethical standards, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. We have no known conflicts of relationships or interests to disclose. The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration [UA6MC32492].