Brief Interventions for Families Seeking Support from Family Services: A Scoping Review

Brief family support interventions may be an effective and acceptable option when demands on services and pressures on families can often mean intensive, long-term family support interventions are an inefficient and unappealing course of action. The purpose of this scoping review was to better understand the nature of non-medical brief interventions targeted at parents and families experiencing adversity or challenging circumstances that may lead them to seek support from family services. We used a systematic search and selection process to identify publications (papers or webpages) about brief interventions for parents and families within three academic databases and 70 websites. Publications were in scope if the interventions were targeted to parents and families, were non-medical in nature, and were brief (no longer than 10 h duration, or up to four sessions). We identified 78 papers and webpages eligible for inclusion in this scoping review, covering 46 brief interventions. Data were extracted by two researchers and charted in a spreadsheet. Most interventions were delivered in the mental health sector, followed by the education, and then community or family services sector, and most often in a clinical setting. Intervention duration varied, ranging from 45 min to a two-day workshop, and were usually aimed at improving the mental health of children and young people. Interventions were delivered to groups of parents, followed by whole families or individual parents. This review highlights the pressing need for high-quality evaluations of brief interventions for family support, and given the diversity of delivery modes, durations and conceptualisation of ‘brief intervention’ in the field and literature, further synthesis of the evidence through systematic reviews is required. This paper advances understanding and clarity on how brief interventions may be beneficial for families experiencing adversity, yet further evaluation and systematic review for acceptability and efficacy is required.