PATHS

The PATHS (Providing Accessible Training and Home Support) for Parents with ID project collaborated with Arizona evidence-based home visiting programs to improve access to high-quality parenting support for parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) who have children under five years old. We have also partnered with Family Spirit, a national home visiting program developed for and with Indigenous communities as part of the John Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health. Through these partnerships, we have developed a free training series for home visitors to increase their ability to serve parents with ID.

4.1 million parents in the United States have disabilities (Li, Parish, Mitra & Nicholson, 2017). It is estimated that approximately 1.6 million parents in the United States have a cognitive disability (Sonik, Parish, Mitra, & Nicholson, 2017) although it is likely this number is under-represented and therefore higher.

Parents with intellectual disability are at a much higher risk for being reported to child protective services (CPS) (DeZelar and Lightfoot, 2021), for their children to be removed from the home (Lightfoot and DeZelar, 2016), and to have their parental rights terminated (LaLiberte et al., 2024) despite limited evidence that CPS involvement is necessary. The PATHS project aimed to address the inequities experienced by parents with intellectual disabilities by providing training to home visiting programs. Home visiting programs were chosen due to their evidence-based curriculum, in-home services, and access to vulnerable families. Training home visitors may decrease the likelihood of CPS involvement as well as provide individualized support to decrease health inequities experienced by parents with intellectual disability.

Training & Support for Home Visitors

The PATHS team developed and hosted two series of educational trainings for Arizona home visitors and other community health workers. Trainings provided information as to what intellectual disability (ID) is, common myths and challenges for parents with ID and implications for home visitors when working with parents with ID. Find the video recordings and slideshows in the “More Information” section below under the “PATHS Presentations” tab.

More Information

For more information, contact Dr. Sara Clancey at Sara.Clancey@nau.edu.

This contract is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $1,500,930, with 0% from non-governmental sources. Services provided under contract, including the views expressed in written materials or publications and by any speakers, do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the ADDPC, ACL, or HHS.