Parent-to-Parent support providers: How recruits are identified.

OBJECTIVE

To examine selection criteria for Parent-to-Parent support parents trained to provide support to other parents of children with disabilities.

METHOD

Ten leaders of Parent-to-Parent programmes participated in telephone interviews to explore attributes associated with parents selected to be trained as support parents.

RESULTS

Qualitative analysis reveals parents deemed "ready" to become support parents, build relationships, exhibit positivity, build capacities, have good communication skills and a future orientation and feel the need to give back. An additional set of attributes we have named, "red flags" are associated with parents not suitable to provide support are also presented.

CONCLUSIONS

Parent-to-Parent support parents are informally identified by a set of characteristics that can be operationalized for screening purposes. Findings provide support for the positive influence of the peer support relationship and identify the need for a measure of parent "readiness" to assist in the recruitment of quality support parents for the Parent-to-Parent organization.