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Click here to read the Child Welfare League of America review of Parenting Wisely in a recent issue of their journal, Children's Voice.

Pat McGowan , Cascade County Regional Youth Detention Center, Great Falls, Montana

"I am passionate about the Parenting Wisely program! In all my years of experience working with high risk kids, including those with chemical dependency issues, I am most impressed with Parenting Wisely because it causes positive change so quickly compared to other approaches."

BOB PUSHAK, mental health practitioner, British Columbia

"I would say that my success rate has doubled from where it was two years ago since I started using the program. In the group program for kids age 6 to 12 I have had six kids (14%) showing over three standard deviations of change on the ECBI in terms of the total problem scale. None of these kids were put on medication or had a medication change during treatment. I think that is quite phenomenal. I have never had that kind of change before. "
"We started using it in March of 2001, now with well over a hundred families. We were originally using the American version but now mostly we are using the British Teen version plus the Young Children version. We just received the Foster Parent version. I have only been using the EYEBERG BEHAVIOR INVENTORY (ECBI) for pre-tests and post-tests. We have had really good results. It depends in part on the age, and whether the program is used in parenting groups or if the program is just being used individually. With kids ages four to twelve, we have had 69% showing significant change in the parenting classes. And with the older kids, ages 12 to 17 we have had 40 to 50% change. This is the percentage of youth showing over one standard deviation of change on the ECBI. With the group program we are getting really strong positive feedback. 93% of the parents polled at the end of the class indicated that they would either strongly recommend or recommend the program to others. "

KAY DOUGHTY, M.A., Family Centered Substance Abuse Services (DACCO), Tampa, FL

"Since last fall we have had no pregnancies, no reported drug use and no impregnations, which we are pretty pleased with."

"I wrote a grant to provide prevention services to children and families of women who were in substance abuse treatment or who have completed substance abuse treatments just because of my strong feeling that unless we do intervention with families, we are never going to change anything. Initially we had a lot of resistance from the families. Probably a third of the families that we have been working with go through the material a second time. It is interesting, because they are obviously finding it useful and the kids like it too. These kids are very angry kids and have had problems and many times since they have been in and out of foster care they do not want to talk to their moms or anyone. They like the computer use. We have been using the American teen version, and we have just started using the children's and we will be following up some of our clients with the British version. We ordered the Spanish as well, but we have not used it so far. We probably have had 40 families. I have a heavy minority population and I have not been told by any of the counselors that there has been a problem with the videos. We have been asked by many families if they could have another workbook."

HELEN O'NEIL D.P.P., South Eastern Health Board, Co. Wexford and the University of Ulster, Ireland
We've used Parenting Wisely for probably a year, we got it March 2001. We are using the American version. We have had 30 or more users in this period. I use the EYBERG and the Parent Behavior and all the questionnaires that come with the program. I interviewed all of them before they used the program and their knowledge improved and the behavior problems were reduced after using Parenting Wisely.

"I think it is cost effective. Basically it is a one time cost and we can use it as much as we want. And we use it a lot."

"The agency has been using the program for three years. We have had about 300 users.We originally started off with the regular American version, and we now have the British version and the Young Children version as well. The technology change from the first version to the British version is really great. The British version is so realistic. The language that kids use---at first people have a hard time listening to the British accent, that goes away-- people get over it because of the very realistic depiction. I enjoy the Young Children version as well. It is very realistic and we would like to start using it in the group format. I love the different choices of the scenarios-the one in the grocery store, and the one with the grandmother.

People have had very favorable reactions to viewing the program. People have said it is very easy to use. I have had people with no computer experience, and they have not had a problem using it. I have also had people with very low education levels and they have also found that it is easy to use. Some people who have low reading levels have been able to use it because they can have the program read to them. Every one of the scenarios is very similar to their own families and the skills that are taught are very easy to understand and the explanation is very good on how to actually carry out the tasks that are shown.The parents find the content relevant and realistic. People have a good little laugh and you often hear, "well that is my family".

I think it is a great compliment to the programs that are offered in the agency, because we have a great focus on families and we are trying to expand that even more. We are trying to use it as a starting off point when they come in to the agency trying to get anyone who is a parent to see it while they are on the waiting list to get other services.Some times people do not like to admit that they might have done the same things themselves, but they can be one step away from that. They can talk about someone else and still get the same message. So, when they do it individually there is no staff person pointing a finger at them saying you are right or wrong. We give the people who use the program a workbook so that they have the knowledge from viewing the video and they can look back in the workbook. They can read, besides seeing it, so it covers two different learning styles. "