E-PACT: Randomised Trial of Parenting Acceptance and Commitment therapy for Parents of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities

E-PACT is an online/telehealth parent support intervention developed in partnership with parents and focussed on growing parent capacity. E-PACT (“Parenting with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy”) was developed grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a type of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) that targets psychological flexibility: the “ability to persist or change one’s behaviour, with full and flexible awareness of the situational context and one’s own present-moment experience, in the service of chosen values”. Core to ACT is acknowledgement of the universality of suffering, and the importance of living a meaningful life through effective action and focusing on what works, themes that resonate for parents of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD). E-PACT will support parents to grow parent capacity by cultivating flexible, sensitive, and effective parenting through developing: • Effective strategies for teaching new skills, and encouraging positive behaviour • Effective strategies for managing misbehaviour • Effective strategies for interacting with the wider community • Awareness of their own and their child’s (developing) values • Awareness of effective action, i.e., what works • Insightfulness, understanding the child’s perspective • Experiential acceptance, the ability to live with distressing emotions, cognitions, and memories as they arise, and continue to focus on effective action • Acceptance of their child and their child’s emotions, cognitions etc. • Self-compassion & achievable self-care repertoires It will include an EdX course and clinician consultations. E-PACT EdX course: 12-week EdX course, includes videos, text, multiple choice questions, real life activities (e.g., practising mindfulness during a parent-child interaction), and a discussion board facilitated by the E-PACT clinicians. The course contains six modules (one module per fortnight across 12-weeks), with modules taking approximately one hour each to complete. E-PACT is delivered via the edX platform, freely available and fully supported at the University of Queensland. Module engagement will be tracked via participants' completion of questions related to program feasibility, appropriateness, and acceptability shown at the end of each module. Clinician Support: One-on-one clinician consultations (30 minutes per fortnight across the 12-week course) will support parents in understanding and acting on E-PACT content, taking a flexible goal-directed approach. Clinician consultations will focus on: parental goals, parental application in real life, overcoming obstacles, and integrating flexibility into parent-child interactions. Clinician consultations will be conducted via ZOOM. They will be recorded and assessed for adherence to protocol and session attendance logs will be kept. Parents will choose three goals for change (i) a parent-child relationship or parenting goal, (ii) a parental self-care or health behaviour goal, and (iii) a child behaviour/adjustment goal. E-PACT is supported by trained allied health clinicians providing individualised feedback and additional support to specific families. It thus offers a translatable and scalable universal online support with additional telehealth components for families who need it.