Parents as peer leaders: a systems-informed positive psychology approach to wellbeing and family quality of life in early childhood intervention. Presented by Sylvana Mahmic, Dr Anoo Bhopti and Dr Peggy Kern,

Traditional approaches to early childhood intervention often focus on addressing deficits or providing short-term solutions. However, families of children with developmental concerns, delays, or disabilities need a more holistic, strength-based approach that empowers them and promotes long-term wellbeing. Systems-informed positive psychology (SIPP) offers a powerful framework for reshaping service delivery to support not just the child, but the entire family, by fostering hope, empowerment, and resilience. Improving family quality of life (FQoL) is central to this approach, ensuring that families experience meaningful improvements in their everyday lives.

Join us for an insightful webinar on the impact of SIPP in early childhood intervention. This event will highlight findings from the Parents as Peer Leaders project, including the Now & Next program and We Care, and discuss how the SIPP approach can transform support systems for families and enhance family quality of life.

What will be covered:

• Discuss how a systems-informed positive psychology (SIPP) lens can reshape service design, creating more holistic and strength-based support for families.
• Use the Parents as Peer Leaders project as a practical example of applying the SIPP approach to empower parents and achieve measurable outcomes in hope, empowerment, and wellbeing.
• Explain how parent-peer workers, guided by the SIPP framework, can serve as catalysts for change, offering an innovative approach to transforming early childhood intervention.
• Explore how these insights can guide future program development and drive broader changes through partnerships and scaling initiatives, all through the SIPP perspective.
• Consider how family quality of life (FQoL) can be improved through peer-led initiatives and systems-informed practices.

Why attend?
This webinar is designed for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in early childhood intervention and positive psychology. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the integration of research and practical applications to create meaningful changes in the disability sector. The session will also provide an opportunity for extended discussion during an optional Q&A.

Key takeaways:

• The importance of a systems approach in reshaping support for families.
• Practical examples of how peer-led programs like Now & Next have been co-designed with parents to achieve measurable outcomes.
• The potential for scaling peer-led initiatives to drive system-wide improvements.
• Strategies for enhancing family quality of life through innovative interventions.

Sylvana Mahmic, CEO of Plumtree Children’s Services, has over 28 years of expertise in early childhood intervention, with a focus on whole-of-family and peer-led approaches, co-creating the Now & Next program and founding two peer-led organisations. She has served on numerous advisory groups, including six Ministerial appointments, and is currently a member of the NDIS Independent Advisory Council, while also conducting postgraduate research on individualised funding, inspired by her experience with her son’s self-managed funding since 2009.

Dr Anoo Bhopti is the course director of the Masters of Occupational Therapy course in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University, and an occupational therapy clinician in paediatrics. She is a founding board member of PRECI (Professionals and Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention), and her research focusses on early childhood intervention, and the childhood disability sector and higher education sectors. Anoo is committed to working closely with families using family centred and strengths-based approaches to achieve inclusion and participation of children. Her research covers areas including: childhood disability, family quality of life, autism, parent occupations, paediatric occupational therapy interventions, evidence-based practice, and inclusion and participation of children with disability. Details of Anoo’s publications and research outputs are available here. 

Dr Peggy Kern is a professor at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Education. Her research is collaborative in nature and draws on a variety of methodologies to examine questions around who thrives in life and why, including understanding and measuring healthy functioning, identifying individual and social factors impacting life trajectories, and systems informed approaches to wellbeing.  She has published 3 books, 1 handbook and over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. You can find out more about Dr Kern’s work at www.peggykern.org.

Banner image: Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash