Implementation and evaluation of The Incredible Years in Ireland by the new Archways NGO represent an important step forward for prevention in the country. Here the program’s Canadian developer Carolyn Webster-Stratton and her highly influential disciple in Wales, Judy Hutchings, look back across 30 years of hard-won progress and contemplate the challenges ahead in Ireland and elsewhere.

Carolyn Webster-Stratton It’s been exciting and heart warming to see what’s happening in Ireland. Archways are rolling our the Incredible Years programs with great attention to quality delivery and support for practitioners.
I expect there’ll be a few stumbling blocks along the way as we’ve had in other countries. But the kinds of issues we’re facing today with implementing evidence-based programs is far different from those we had 30 years ago when no-one knew what an evidence-based program was!
There was very little evidence to support prevention or children's mental health programs and very little interest in prevention then. Government was afraid to tinker in family life and support families by providing parenting programs.
Look at what’s been achieved. Look at what you as a champion for children's mental health services have managed to do in Wales, Judy. That’s a fantastic story in its own right. It’s the story of what change is possible with the right evidence and the right determination - even on the part of a single individual.

Judy Hutchings It probably reflects my childhood origins in the Labour Party and the Peace Movement! If there’s one person you can change it's yourself and by changing yourself you can change others. But moving forward I’m a little more optimistic for Europe than I am for the US.
For all its faults we still have universal health care. We have resources in Europe. For a long time we didn't need to bother about effectiveness. Now we do, and that creates a great opportunity for prevention.

CW-S You may be right about the European context. But in all places the challenge is to get the programs embedded in ongoing services. Too many people think that 12 or 20 sessions of The Incredible Years is an inoculation for families for life. I think that’s short-sighted. I'd like to see prevention programs being offered across the lifespan. Why not offer parenting training or consultation at each of the sensitive periods of children's development – at key points of transition such as during infancy, the preschool period, then early school age, then adolescence. At each developmental transition parents would get support and understanding of the issues involved in the next developmental phase and ideas about how to m