Abstract
Background: Families of children living with chronic illness are more vulnerable to mental health problems,
however this can be ameliorated by a family’s resilience. The Child Illness and Resilience Program (CHiRP) will
develop and evaluate a parent-focussed family intervention designed to increase the resilience and wellbeing of
families living with childhood chronic illness.
Methods/Design: The study will be conducted in an Australian regional paediatric hospital and will use a stepped
care intervention that increases in intensity according to parental distress. All parents of children discharged from
the hospital will receive a family resilience and wellbeing factsheet (Step 1). Parents of children attending selected
outpatient clinics will receive a family resilience and wellbeing activity booklet (Step 2). Parents who receive the
booklet and report psychological distress at three-month follow-up will be randomised to participate in a family
resilience information support group or waitlist control (Step 3). The Step 3 control group will provide data to compare
the relative effectiveness of the booklet intervention alone versus the booklet combined with the group intervention
for distressed parents. These participants will then receive the information support group intervention. All parents in
Step 2 and 3 will complete baseline, post-intervention and six month follow up assessments. The primary outcomes of
the study will be changes in scores between baseline and follow-up assessments on measures of constructs of family
resilience, including parental wellbeing, family functioning, family beliefs and perceived social support. Qualitative
feedback regarding the utility and acceptability of the different intervention components will also be collected.
Discussion: It is hypothesised that participation in the CHiRP intervention will be associated with positive changes in
the key outcome measures. If effective, CHiRP will provide an opportunity for the health sector to deliver a
standardised stepped care mental health promotion intervention to families living with childhood chronic illness.
Trial registration: Australian clinical Trials Registry ACTRN 12613000844741
Universal Trial Number (UTN): 1111-1142-8829
Keywords: Family resilience, Childhood chronic illness, Family intervention, Evaluation, Parental wellbeing, Family
functioning, Social support
* Correspondence: Katrina.Hamall@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
1Hunter Institute of Mental Health, Hunter New England Local Health District,
Newcastle, Australia
2School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, PO Box 833,
Newcastle, NSW 2300, Australia
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
© 2014