Individual supervision of home visiting professionals is a key element for the efficiency and efficacy of perinatal home visiting programs. Although studies have been published concerning quality criteria for supervision in North American contexts, little is known about this subject in other national settings. This article describes the modalities of individual supervision implemented in the CAPEDP program, the first randomized controlled perinatal prevention research program to take place in France, and the results from a study using the Delphi process to identify, two years into the program, the supervisors’ point of view concerning best practice for the individual supervision of home visitors involved in such perinatal home visiting programs (Greacen et al., 2016). The recommendations identified by the supervisors were then presented, again using the Delphi method, to the home visitors themselves to ascertain their point of view concerning these recommendations. The study reveals that, although there is a high level of consensus across both groups, the Delphi process with the home visitors underlines the importance—for these young psychologists working with families in difficult psychosocial contexts—not only of reflective supervision but also of clinical guidance on more practical issues.
Keywords
- clinical supervision
- reflective supervision
- Delphi process
- CAPEDP early prevention program