The Place and Participation of Parents at the Rond-Point Perinatal and Family Center for Drug Addiction

Abstract

This article presents a participatory action research initiative involving counsellors and parents at a perinatal and family center for drug addiction in order to reflect on what shape parental participation might take within this resource. The goal was to document how moments of discussion would impact the parents’ participation, the parents’ journeys, and Rond-Point’s (RP) planned interventions. In November 2014, a group of parents took part in eight meetings, and a team of RP counsellors, in three meetings. Two combined “pooling meetings” were held between both groups in order to share ideas. Both before and after the initiative, to complete the data collection process, group meetings were held with the counsellors and individual interviews took place with the parents. In the parent group, the initiative gave rise to a culture of voicing their views, reflecting, and raising questions. In the counsellor group, the initiative led to changing how they worked and transforming the way they viewed parental participation. Nevertheless, the parents’ participation did not significantly change the center’s planned offerings. A number of clinical and organizational issues constituted obstacles to the parents’ power to act in this regard.

Keywords

• participatory action research
• parental participation
• addiction
• user committee
• perinatal period
• organization of services