0069 It takes a village to raise a child: strengthening local partnerships and capacity to implement an evidenced based child maltreatment program

Statement of purposeLocal public health departments (LHDs) and primary health care agencies play an important role in local systems that serve children, both as direct service providers and as coordinating agencies to improve population health. LHDs have an opportunity to incorporate parenting education and skills-building interventions into their existing programs and services. Increased understanding is needed on the role of LHDs in supporting efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect as well as translation and implementation of evidenced based parenting programs into local contexts. The Triple P Implementation Project aims to increase understanding about the conditions, capacities and partnerships necessary to implement Triple P.Methods/ApproachThe Triple P Implementation Project was a four year demonstration initiative of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) in partnership with Triple P America designed to study the feasibility of two local communities’ ability to coordinate and implement a population based parenting education program, Triple P, across a county specifically through partnerships between Federally Qualified Health Centres (FQHCs) and Local Public Health Departments (LHDs).ResultsNACCHO and Triple P America provided a wide range of supports and technical assistance to demonstration sites. For a variety of reasons, LHDs ended up playing a primary role in coordinating community wide implementation of Triple P in their communities with more limited support from FQHCs than initially envisioned. Working with state and local community partners LHDs identified community agencies or individuals who could implement the program and provided leadership, training and support to them.ConclusionsLHDs play an important role in local systems that serve children, both as direct service providers and as coordinating agencies. The session will describe strategies communities used to mobilise partners and build capacity as well as present successes, challenges and lessons learned from the project’s evaluation.Significance and contribution to the fieldTriple P can serve a significant community need to address parenting and child maltreatment. LHD’s have great potential to serve as catalysts for supporting community wide coordination and implementation of Triple P with community support and other partnerships. Opportunities exist to increase capacity and resourcing to LHDs to more effectively implement evidenced based parentin