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WHEN DOES A GOOD IDEA become a reality? Although an idea always requires an “incubation period” before it is turned

into action, we think of December 2015 as the birthday of what is now the PACE Coaching Project. That is when the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) announced one-time funding for a parent coaching intervention research project aimed at very young children at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This announcement was followed by a meeting in February 2016 at which researchers and clinicians from across Canada and the United States met in Victoria to answer a deceptively simple question: “What do we know about how to provide evidence-based supports to the parents of toddlers who are at risk for ASD?” The meeting was led by its conveners – Karen Bopp, then the Senior Behaviour Consultant for the Ministry of Children and Family Development, and Deborah Pugh, the Executive Director of ACT-Autism Community Training. Some of the attendees were experienced in the delivery of parent coaching interventions, while others were

A Good Idea Becomes a Reality! The PACE Coaching Story

PARENT & CHILD EARLY COACHING PROJECT NEWSLETTERVOLUME 1 NO. 1 WINTER 2017

PACE Coaching trainer Michaela Jelen leaves for a visit to one of our partner sites in the Interior – Starbucks in hand!

Keeping

A HOST OF COMMUNITY PARTNERS,

including the Ministry of Children & Family Development and ACT- Autism Community Training, have been instrumental to this project.

See page 2 for the details.

interested in developing programs of this type. Regardless, there was tremendous enthusiasm in the room that day, and everyone who attended was excited by the possibility of designing a “made-in-BC” parent coaching intervention for families across the province.

Fast forward six months. After extensive consultation, a Steering Committee comprised of representatives from MCFD, ACT-Autism Community Training, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR), and the Pacific Autism Family Network developed a Request for Applications (RFA) for the parent coaching project and released it in August 2016.

More on next page

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Interested researchers and community partners met to review and discuss the RFA with the Steering Committee at the end of September, and then the work began in earnest! Faced with an application deadline of November 21, applicant teams met frequently over the next several weeks to envision and develop a proposal for this 3-year project that is aimed at both building community capacity and evaluating the outcomes of parent coaching.

In January 2017, MSFHR convened a scientific review panel of researchers from both Canada and the United States to review the proposals. On February 3, the UBC team was pleased to receive notice that our proposal was accepted, pending a number of revisions. Over the next several weeks, we worked diligently to make substantial changes to the original proposal, and submitted a revision on March 13. Finally – FINALLY! – we were informed that funding was approved for the Parent and Child Early (PACE) Coaching Project, beginning on April 1, 2017. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of activities, with much more excitement to come!

PACE: A Made-in-BC Initiative

Thanks to everyone!

Over the past several months, we have been fortunate to meet and work with many, many people who

are just as committed and excited about this project as we are! It has been an intense and busy start-up period, and we are grateful for the support of all of our community partners, MCFD, ACT-Autism Community Training, UBC, and the Pacific Autism Family Network. We want to make special mention of the leadership provided by our friend and colleague Anthony Bailey, who is no longer

involved with the project. Tony’s advice and guidance was instrumental during the proposal development and start-up phases, in particular. The project would not be what it is today had Tony not played

a pivotal role in these activities, and we are grateful for his wise input.

As we move forward from the community partnership and coach training phases of the project to the screening and parent

coaching phases in Spring 2018, we continue to welcome input and advice from all of our partners. Onward and upward!

Researchers and trainers on the PACE Coaching team met in May to begin planning (L to R): Michaela Jelen (trainer), Paola Colozzo (UBC), Veronica Smith (U. of Alberta), Pat Mirenda (UBC), Janet Harder (trainer), Anthony Bailey (UBC), Karen Kalynchuk (UBC), and Mary McKenna (trainer). Additional co-investigators are Sally Rogers (U. of California-Davis), Laurie Vismara (Emory University), and Wendy Ungar (U. of Toronto).

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To train individuals in CDCs and AIDPs across the province to coach parents of at-risk children in home and community settings, using PACE Coaching, a BC model based on the Early

Start Denver Model (ESDM)

STATUS: We are training 39 parent coaches across all of our partner agencies (see page 8). Trainees participate in two training workshops and practice what they learned with children and parents after each one. All of the initial workshops have been completed or are now in progress, and the second workshops will begin in January 2018. We plan to have most parent coaches trained by the Spring of 2018.

To establish a community of practice for parent coaching by working collaboratively with Child Development Centres (CDCs) and

Aboriginal Infant Development Programs (AIDPs) across the provinceSTATUS: We have established partnerships with 16 Child Development Centres and 7 Aboriginal Centres in all regions of the province.

To examine the effectiveness of PACE Coaching by conducting a randomized controlled trial

STATUS: We plan to recruit ~150 parents/children for this trial. Half – selected at random – will receive PACECoaching and half will receive the usualservices available in their community,plus enhanced child assessment andmonitoring. We also plan to create asub-project with our Aboriginal partnersthat will not involve randomization. Wehope to begin enrollment in the trial inMarch-April of 2018.

PACE Objectives & Outcomes to Date

To develop and implement a screening process utilizing the Modified Checklist for

Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F)

STATUS: We will work with 18 qualified clinical specialists in ASD (“Qs”; see page 8) who have been identified in our partner agencies to develop an efficient and effective screening process. We plan to screen ~200 children across the province, beginning in February or March of 2018.

To conduct a cost effectiveness analysis that

compares parent coaching to

services that are ordinarily available to toddlers at risk for ASD in BC

STATUS: We are working with our partners at the University of Toronto to develop this portion of the project.

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Meet our community partners!

Ts’ewulhtun Health Centre, Cowichan Tribes (Duncan)

Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre Association and Cariboo Friendship Society (Williams Lake)

Community Connections Society of Southeast BC (Cranbrook)

Comox Valley Child Development Association and Campbell River Association for Community Living

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Clements Centre Society (Duncan)

Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association and Reach Child and Youth Development Society (Delta/Surrey)

Fraser Valley Child Development Centre Child Development Centre Society of Fort St. John

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Kermode Friendship Society and Terrace Child Development Centre

Kitimat Child Development Centre Association

Okanagan Nation Alliance and OSNS Child Development Centre (Penticton)

Child Development Centre of Prince George and District

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Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living and Ridge Meadows Child Development Centre

First Nations Friendship Centre and NONA Child Development Centre (Vernon)

Shuswap Children’s Association (Salmon Arm)

Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health (Victoria)

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Community Partner Parent Coaches (the Ps) Qualified Clinical Specialists in ASD (the Qs)

Campbell River and District Association for Community Living Nachelle Hicks Jennifer Lewis

Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre Association (Williams Lake) Nancy Frost Julia Hodder

Cariboo Friendship Society (Williams Lake) Linda Brown Julia Hodder

Child Development Centre Society of Fort St. John Paddy Jo Gill, Deanne Ward & Ami-Jo Dunn Shiante Pereira

Child Development Centre of Prince George and District Tanya Klassen Carley Billups

Community Connections Society of Southeast BC (Cranbrook) Tabitha Simson & Charlene Stropky Simone Bourassa

Clements Centre Society (Duncan) Emily Moss & Alexis van Nieuwkerk Kate McLeod

Comox Valley Child Development Association Jennifer McInnes & Carlin Lindsay Jennifer Lewis

First Nations Friendship Centre (Vernon) Connie Deane Erin Hutton

Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association Jana Jackson Miriam Elfert

Fraser Valley Child Development Centre Christine Baber, Melissa Buckingham & Georgina Exley Ben Perry

Kermode Friendship Society (Terrace) Chantel Dhami Karen Shaw-Carter

Kitimat Child Development Centre Association Nemat Abu Sabiha & Ruth Quinn Carolyn Watt

NONA Child Development Centre (Vernon) Laurie Russell Erin Hutton

Okanagan Nation Alliance Angela Wrede Henrietta Penney

OSNS Child Development Centre (Penticton) Madri Hammond & Susan Butler Sarah Lowe

Queen Alexandra Centre for Children's Health (Victoria) Jocelyn Harrington, Karen Handford, Dawn Grunert & Deidre O’Connor

Jennifer Boutilier & Katherine Walter

Reach Child and Youth Development Society (Delta/Surrey) Elaine Kwok, Oshrat Zemel & Bethany Goossen Miriam Elfert

Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living Anna Giacometti Samantha Teters

Ridge Meadows Child Development Centre Christine Hillick Samantha Teters

Shuswap Children's Association (Salmon Arm) Tammy Corston Nadine Moore

Terrace Child Development Centre Karen Chasney Karen Shaw-Carter

Ts'ewulhtun Health Centre, Cowichan Tribes (Duncan) Robin McDaniel, Caroline Modeste & Brooklyn Davis Jocelyn Lundberg

Minding our “Ps” and “Qs”