Handle with Care is an 8-week program that offers activities, games and discussions that help parents and other caregivers understand how to promote the mental health of children from birth to age 6. The focus of Handle with Care is to build individual skills and enhance community capacity for collaborative, evidence-based approaches that build secure attachments, positive self-esteem, capability
for emotion expression and social relationships. Strategies and program delivery are based on community input and a mutual support model aimed at building community capacity throughout the wider populations, especially those who may be at risk for mental health challenges. Handle with Care assumes every parent and caregiver has problem-solving skills and resources and wants what’s best for the children in their lives. It builds on participants’ strengths and capacities, engages them and offers opportunities to maximize a sense of control over their environment. It provides practical ways to apply research information in a context of interactive activities that promote mental health. The program covers the basic ‘building blocks’ for young children’s mental health:
1.)fostering secure attachment;
2.) building positive self-esteem;
3.) helping children express emotions in a constructive way; and
4.) fostering peer relationships. The three key program outcomes are:
1. Positive effects on participating parents’ and caregivers’ mental health (flourishing), even in the case of known mental health issues;
2. Greater sense of parenting competence in parenting practices and in developing relationships with their children (and others from their support network); and
3. Increased sense of self-care and wellness practices on the part of the parents. Handle with Care is a simple, culturally relevant program designed, for parents and caregivers, to promote the mental health specifically of young children from birth to age 6 and their families. At its core the program is designed to reduce inequities and build on individual’s strengths, traditions and parenting confidence. We know that mental health or social and emotional well-being is an integral part of all health and development. The foundations of which are shaped from the early years. Brain development in the early years is known to set neurological and biological pathways that affect health, learning and behavior. Handle with Care is a program that promotes awareness of how the small every day actions and interactions between parent, caregiver and child can help children flourish, thrive and grow into healthy adults with positive long-term outcomes. Handle with Care, as we head into year four (4) of the project, with funding support of the Province of Prince Edward Island and the Canada ELCC Multilateral Funding Agreement, the program is thriving across the province including Anglophone, Francophone and Indigenous communities thanks to the many certified facilitators and Master Trainers. Who attends:
We believe that parents of all socio-economic and educational backgrounds can benefit from Handle with Care. To this end we invite each participant to come to the table as a parent first. Those that work with families and young children have direct access to potential participants for parent programs. It would be our wish that every EYC across PEI is offering a HwC program to their families. Recent Parent Comments on Their Experiences:
“I am a better listener now!” - Parent
“I have met other parents and can connect with them even online so I do not feel alone.” - Parent
“I have new strategies to use in my classroom.” Educator
“I learned it is okay to take care of me.” – Parent
