La téléconsultation, une modalité prometteuse pour les programmes psychoéducatifs destinés aux parents d’enfants ayant un trouble du spectre de l’autisme

The disclosure to parents of a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) for a child has an impact on their mental health and well-being. Programs have been established to support them. One of these programs, “Beyond ASD, parenting skills within my reach!”, created in Quebec, has been tested and validated on Quebec and French populations. So far, the evaluation of the effects of the program on a Canadian population showed interesting results regarding knowledge about ASD, parents’ use of strategies, locus of control, and parental stress, but these variations and positive changes were also observed in a control group with access to another form of intervention. The preliminary results for a French population indicated that parents appeared to be significantly less stressed, and they improved certain areas of their quality of life. These results showed the need to offer support to parents after they were given a diagnosis of autism for their child as a post-diagnosis proposal. Nevertheless, parents are often overwhelmed after their child's diagnosis, because of the accumulation of work, school and specific interventions for their child. French parents also experience difficulties due to transportation problems in the Île-de-France region. The COVID-19 sanitary restrictions only served to heighten these difficulties. Therefore, professional mental healthcare providers aimed to pursue offering a program to parents following the diagnosis of their child in spite of these constraints. Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of teleconsultation for healthcare treatments. The objectives of the present study were to quantitatively assess parental satisfaction and their perception of change in their parenting skills after they participated in the program delivered through teleconsultation, and how they qualitatively expressed themselves about the advantages and limits of the teleconsultation modality. We also sought to be able to determine to which type of parents this program could be recommended, the expected benefits for parents in terms of shared experience, learning and exchanges, and finally to evaluate the program itself as a post-diagnosis proposal. The study involved fourteen parents of children with ASD: eleven French and three French Canadians. The quantitative results showed an average satisfaction of 95.36% and an acceptability of 89.46% of the total score; the qualitative results indicated the satisfaction of parents who participated in the teleconsultation program in France and Quebec. They are consistent with the results obtained in face-to-face sessions. The results show the benefits for parents who used the teleconsultation program, while allowing a greater number of people to participate. This preliminary study of the feasibility and acceptability of the teleconsultation modality for parents of children with ASD makes it possible to consider a validation of this new modality. The quantitative and qualitative data demonstrated that parents reported acquiring new skills at a crucial period for them when they felt the increased needs and challenges in their perceived competencies to deal with self-efficacy and stress compared to other parents. The results confirmed parental interest in psychoeducational programs after their child had been given an ASD diagnosis. They were satisfied with the relationship they had with the professionals and other parents in the teleconsultation program. The results also indicated they felt respected and understood. The use of teleconsultation didn’t seem to interfere with these feelings and helped them during a difficult personal time. The limits of the present study include a possible social bias, a limited number of subjects, and a possible inequality in the participants’ ability to use digital media. Whereas diagnosis and parental intervention represent a societal stake, we need to adapt programs involving new modalities in order to reach the largest number of parents possible, and we need to remain mindful to follow recommendations and parental feedback regarding the necessity of maintaining informal time to encourage exchanges between parents. New challenges seem to be raised and considered for future implementation.