Introduction
Under the generous donation of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Tung Wah Group of Hospitals TWGHs had launched a 3-year territory-wide service project, “ Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Service - A New Initiative against Child Battering” since 1 November 2008. With 9 service points over the territory, the project had served over 600 stressful and battering parents who had children aged 2 to 7 with behavioral problems. The project had gained very positive feedback from the service users.
From 2012 Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust had continued supporting TWGHs to launch“ The Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Project Grant: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Service, which had served over 2200 families in need and 800 helping professionals such as the preschool teachers, residential child care workers and foster parents.
PCIT service in now a self finance service which supported by service income from users.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT in short) was developed by Professor Sheila M. Eyberg of the University of Florida of the USA in the 1980s. It has been widely used in USA and is an evidence-based practice proved to be effective in handling children' s behavioral difficulties and child abuse families.
PCIT is an early intervention, with the emphasis of modifying the improper parenting methods and enhancing the positive parent-child interaction when the children are still at their preschool age. The parent-child dyad will be arranged to receive intensive treatment, including weekly sessions, one - hour each, for a period of about 14 to 20 weeks. The parents will wear the wireless ear-plug while the therapist, behind the one-way mirror, will use the wireless transmitter to coach the parents directly on on how to build up satisfactory parent-child relationship and how to manage the child behavior problems. The parents will experience on the spot the effect of positive parent-child interaction and grasp the effective parenting skills.
Pilot Project on Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Service
Tung Wah Group of Hospitals has all along been committed to developing effective prevention and early intervention programs for combating child abuse. In 2004, Tung Wah began a pilot project adopting Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Service from USA. In 2004 and 2005, Dr. Anthony Urquiza and Dr. Nancy Zebell of the CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Centre and Professor Sheila M. Eyberg, the PCIT founder, were invited to Hong Kong to deliver the PCIT training to the staff of Tung Wah.
The pilot PCIT project was first introduced in Tuen Mun in 2004 and extended to Tin Shui Wai in May 2005. Tung Mun and Tin Shui Wai are consistently with the highest child abuse rate in Hong Kong.
