Investigating the parent/health visitor relationship: Can it be measured?
Investigating the parent/health visitor relationship: Can it be measured?. In: Journal of Health Visiting, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 548–558, 2015, ISSN: 2050-8719, (Publisher: Mark Allen Group).
Abstract
The claim that parent/health visitor (HV) relationships are essential for positive outcomes is widely supported, but also contested. Within psychotherapy and other helping professions, researchers have developed measures to demonstrate that the relationship with the therapist is, indeed, linked to positive outcomes. In health visiting no such tools exist, so there is no way to measure any potential benefits from the relationship. This paper explores the reasons why measures used in psychotherapy and other helping relationships may be unsuitable for measuring parent/HV relationships. It reviews a number of measures used and argues the need for a specific parent/HV relationship tool.