Helping parents to understand and support their children with autism through parent education in South East Europe: the ‘ESIPP’ project

Autism is a lifelong condition which can have a significant impact not only upon the individual with autism, but also parents, siblings and the wider family. Parent training has been shown to be an important source of social support to families, helping them adjust to the reality of living with autism, and improving outcomes and quality of life for family members. However, such training is not universally available, and nor may existing models of parent education be universally appropriate. This paper discusses the activity undertaken to date (November 2016) in the Equity and Social inclusion through Positive Parenting (ESIPP) project. This is a partnership of academics, professionals and parents, funded by the European Union, working to develop and evaluate the impact of providing such training in Croatia, Cyprus and the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia. The paper reviews the literature regarding parent training, highlighting key benefits and barriers. It then moves on to introduce the ESIPP project, outlining key aspects of the project – the identification of the core curriculum, the parent training courses and the evaluation process – and summarising what we have learned in developing and providing training across cultures.