Dr. Erin Stern

www.datocms-assets.com/112720/17506...

As part of What Works to Prevent VAWG Ending Violence against Women and Children Help Desk I found it very eye opening albeit harrowing to co-write (with Erika Fraser) a rapid evidence review on orphan trafficking and how it increases the risk of abuse and exploitation of children.

✨Exciting news!

🎓Applications are open for this year’s cohort of our facilitated course, Programming for Prevention: A Practical Approach to Design & Implementation.

🔗Apply by 27 July https://cutt.ly/zrRtWgQ5

#ProgrammingWell

Join our new course and learn from experts Gemma Ferguson, @bini2025.bsky.social and @erinstern.bsky.social, to strengthen your capacity to prevent violence in the family using effective SBC strategies.      

Apply before 31st May! 👉🏾 https://cutt.ly/QrktjjlP

prevention-collaborative.org/wp-content/u...

Interested in how evidence based strategies from the mental health and alcohol fields can inform and strengthen IPV prevention curricula? Check out this new report that synthesizes discussions about such opportunities with 15 alcohol use and mental health experts.

By Scrapping WAGE, Carney Unravels Decades of Progress | The Tyee Women and Gender Equality Canada did vital work. Now that it’s gone, here’s what we stand to lose.

thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...

By Scrapping WAGE, Carney Unravels Decades of Progress | The Tyee Women and Gender Equality Canada did vital work. Now that it’s gone, here’s what we stand to lose.

thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...

#CollaborativeQ&A 3: Parenting programmes can strengthen parental mental health through various pathways including: strengthening bond with children, increasing mental health literacy, increasing parental confidence and social support, increasing food security, decreasing marital conflict and IPV.

#CollaborativeQ&A 2: There are a range of protective factors that can strengthen the mental health of parents and
caregivers, from social support to economic strategies to more equitable divisions of caregiving, which can in turn prevent the risk of child maltreatment.

#CollaborativeQ&A 1. The evidence warrants the need to take parental and caregiver mental health seriously, which can increase the risk of child maltreatment, particularly in combination with additional risk factors: poverty, history of childhood maltreatment and trauma, marital conflict, and IPV.

Parenting for Lifelong Health: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a non-commercialised parenting programme for adolescents and their families in South Africa - PubMed Pan-African Clinical Trials Registry PACTR201507001119966.

#CollaborativeQ&A Sinovuyo programme in South Africa focuses on improving caregiver adolescent relationships
through emotional and conflict management and problem-solving. A evaluation found reductions in abuse reported by youth and caregivers, and parenting stress and depression. cutt.ly/jreZh6MP

#CollaborativeQ&A MaPa parenting curriculum in the Philippines incorporated mindfulness stress reduction activities for caregivers. MaPa female caregivers reported that the mindfulness-based practices helped them regulate their anger towards their children and spouses. cutt.ly/LreZh0OB

#CollaborativeQ&A This brief aimed to take a broad view of available evidence to better understand pathways between parental mental health and child maltreatment: systematic reviews, quantitative, qualitative, implementation science research, although prioritized evidence from the Global South.

Parenting Interventions for Refugees and Forcibly Displaced Families: A Systematic Review - PubMed Globally, an estimated 79.5 million individuals have been displaced, nearly 40% of whom are children. Parenting interventions may have the potential to improve outcomes for displaced families. To inve...

#CollaborativeQ&A This is a highly topical systematic review on the effectiveness of parenting programmes to strengthen mental health among parents and caregivers who are refugees and forcibly displaced families. cutt.ly/zreZbkkc

#CollaborativeQ&A This is an interesting new review on the particular value of group based programmes to strengthen parental and caregiver mental health: cutt.ly/ZreZbizg

#CollaborativeQ&A The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Mental Health & Well-Being of Parents helpfully conveys why this is an issue to take seriously! cutt.ly/ireZv4x3

Caring for the Caregiver (CFC) Training Module The CFC training module builds frontline workers’ skills in strengths-based counseling to increase caregivers’ confidence and help them develop stress management, self-care, and conflict-resolution sk...

#CollaborativeQ&A UNICEF's Caring for the Caregiver Module builds frontline workers’ skills in strengths-based counseling to increase caregivers’ confidence and help them develop stress management, self-care, and conflict-resolution skills to support their emotional well-being. cutt.ly/HreZvSgl

#CollaborativeQ&A The Pathways Diagram (Figure 1) also distills underlying factors that can increase the risk of poor parental and caregiver mental health including childhood trauma and adversities, gender norms and inequalities, IPV, poverty and food insecurity, conflict, and social support.

#CollaborativeQ&A Figure 1 in the brief presents pathways of how common mental health problems among parents can influence poor mental health by influencing parental-child relationship quality, self-esteem and resilience, self-regulation and emotional management.

MaPa in the Philippines: www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journal...

Parenting for Lifelong Health: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a non-commercialised parenting programme for adolescents and their families in South Africa - PubMed Pan-African Clinical Trials Registry PACTR201507001119966.

Parenting for Lifelong Health in South Africa: cutt.ly/jreZh6MP

Effectiveness of a family violence prevention program on mental health outcomes for adult men and women in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo: Insights from a pilot trial The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has faced dual burdens of poor mental health and heightened levels of violence against women and children within the home. Interventions addressing famil...

Safe at Home in DRC: cutt.ly/MreZhKcA

Promoting parent-child relationships and preventing violence via home-visiting: a pre-post cluster randomised trial among Rwandan families linked to social protection programmes - BMC Public Health Background Sugira Muryango is a father-engaged early child development and violence-prevention home-visiting programme delivered by trained lay workers. This cluster-randomised trial evaluates whether...

#CollaborativeQ&A Sugira Muryango parenting programme in Rwanda: cutt.ly/yreZhQSz

Gender-transformative Bandebereho couples' intervention to promote male engagement in reproductive and maternal health and violence prevention in Rwanda: Findings from a randomized controlled trial - ... ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02694627.

#CollaborativeQ&A Bandebereho parenting programme in Rwanda: cutt.ly/lreZhjAL

#CollaborativeQ&A This complementary review synthesises how common mental health problems among parents and caregivers can influence their risk of
perpetrating child maltreatment. Link to earlier brief on IPV and poor mental health can be found here: prevention-collaborative.org/wp-content/u...

#CollaborativeQ&A This review compliments an earlier brief produced by the Collaborative on how poor mental health can increase the risk of perpetrating and experiencing
intimate partner violence and why efforts to alleviate common mental health problems can be an effective prevention strategy.

Please come join our live one hour Q and A session starting in a few minutes today!

#HapenningTomorrow! 
Join the #CollaborativeQ&A right here on Bluesky with @erinstern.bsky.social✍️ Share your questions and reflections on how to integrate violence prevention strategies in parenting programmes!

📝 How can you join?

📅 Tuesday, 25th February

Prepare your questions and send them to us to engage with @erinstern.bsky.social during the live chat.

Use the hashtag #CollaborativeQ&A on Bluesky to stay connected with the conversation.