I would argue that they're absolutely essential. I'll only speak to our area right now, but we are noticing, because of the expansive cumulative risk our children are experiencing and the high number of cases we have of students in our schools, that support for parents is critical. When the stress levels are so high, parents seem unable to take a step back and develop attachment-based parenting strategies. With these programs, which are offered in a non-threatening manner and are offered to the population at large and not just through specific referrals because a deficit has been identified, we're hoping for a significant uptick. We some of this work a trial in September. It was very well received, and we had a significant cross-pollination of families who attended, so we're hopeful.
On February 16th, 2017. See this statement in context.