Category: News

Based on the ICDP report, 2024, by Abdiladif Mohamed Ismail:

The ICDP programme has been incorporated in the Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) project in Somaliland, which has been implemented by Save the Children since 2017 in cooperation with the local partner HAVOYOCO and the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family (MOLSAF).

In 2024, four staff members of the project based in Hargeisa, Somaliland were selected for training at trainer level. They were previously trained as ICDP facilitators by the ICDP international team. The main purpose of the training was to establish the first ICDP trainers in Somaliland, to create competent trainers who can train local facilitators in ICDP programme. The ICDP trainers were trained, guided and supervised by the ICDP chairperson, Nicoletta Armstrong, throughout the process.

The training took place over a four-month period (from August – November 2024) The training consisted of online sessions, followed by practical ICDP work by the team of trainee trainers. There was a significant number of call meetings to discuss progress and address challenges and ways forward. The four ICDP trainers successfully completed the training, having finished their self-training assignments required for certification.

The ICDP trainers established four community-based groups of a total of 16 persons who volunteered to become ICDP facilitators. Three groups were based in the ongoing CSSP project targeted location in Hargeisa and the fourth group was selected from non-project targeted locations in Hargeisa. The selected persons were mostly community champions in the area where the CSSP project was being implemented, and in addition one group was selected from teachers in the city of Hargeisa. The training of new facilitators started with a 5-day workshop. After the workshop facilitators started to implement the ICDP programme by holding sessions with caregivers/parents on a weekly basis.  The ICDP trainers developed their respective plans for supporting facilitators through personal visits to watch facilitators in action, as well as by holding group meetings and communicating through WhatsApp. The facilitators were fully committed and completed the training in a timely manner as agreed with the facilitators and the ICDP international team.

Recommendations by new trainers:

• To continue to implement the ICDP programme and include it in future programming of Save the Children and HAVOYOCO.

• To expand the outreach by forming ICDP facilitators in Magalo Cad in Berbera and other location in Somaliland.

• To receive further training to reach the next level to become Trainers of Trainers.

• To try to establish ICDP Somaliland as an ICDP international partner in Africa; the team is eager to take the lead and make this happen in Somaliland.

ICDP activities reported by the Relational Psychology Institute (www.relationspsykologi.dk):

In 2024 we had a year with many care professionals being trained through our ICDP activities. These activities had a great impact on children at the local children nurseries and in schools, but it also meant a great deal to parents. It also had an impact in the work environment of care professionals. One of the care professionals at a school describes the impact of ICDP likes this:

“I was a little skeptical about what ICDP would change in my pedagogical practice. Would it just be another “fancy model” that would quietly be shelved with many other initiatives. I was very positively surprised by how effective ICDP has been for me and how quickly I cou;d see results from the changes I made. I quickly experienced gains in my relationships with all the children in my class, througth the 8 interaction themes. Small adjustments have a big effect.”

In 2025, we will continue to work with local municipalities and organizations to implement ICDP in schools and childrens nurseries. At the same time we will continue to draw attention to the impact of ICDP across society in Denmark, because we would like to work with ICDP in other areas as well, so more care professionals, volunteers and parents can benefit from ICDP.

Majbritt Bay

ICDP in care for older persons is a multidisciplinary group-based intervention to increase caregivers’ competence within psycho-social and person-centred care. Its content and key components are based on the original version of the ICDP programme, aimed at caregivers of children, which has been used in approximately 70 countries (https://icdp.info/projects/). The 8 guidelines for good interaction as adapted for use in context of care for older persons.

Building a Community Among Multicultural Healthcare Teams in Nursing Homes: A Qualitative Study of the International Caregiver Development Programme (ICDP”.  Published in the International Journal of Older People Nursing

Line Constance Holmsen, Bodil Tveit, Ane-Marthe Solheim Skar, Marit Helene Hem

Link to the research article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/opn.70018

ABSTRACT

Background:

Healthcare workers in nursing homes are an educationally, experientially, culturally and linguistically diverse workforce who face increasing challenges in their working conditions. Studies indicate positive results with regard to coopera-tion and care from experiencing a sense of community in diverse healthcare teams.

Aim:

This qualitative study aimed to explore healthcare workers’ experiences of being part of a team in nursing homes before, during and after their participation in a psychosocial competence building intervention, the International Caregiver Development Programme (ICDP).

Methods:

Fifteen focus group interviews of five ICDP group courses were conducted before, during and after participation in ICDP with 31 cross-cultural healthcare workers in nursing homes. The findings emerged through hermeneutic analysis.The results were compared with the open responses in an anonymous written evaluation. Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) served as a framework for reporting this study.

Results:

Before ICDP, the participants reported a lack of communication regarding priorities, challenges in interactions with the residents and cultural and linguistic diversity among the healthcare workers. During participation in ICDP, they described increased knowledge and understanding of one another in addition to inspiring each other and acknowledging each other’s di-versity as healthcare workers. After completing ICDP, they experienced a sense of relational and practical community, a sense of pride in the team, increased self-confidence related to practice and increased job satisfaction.

Conclusion:

This study indicated that ICDP has the potential to create a community of psychosocial practice in multicultural healthcare teams, which may be strengthened by experiences of mastery, confidence and pride. The participants in this study developed a common conceptual framework for understanding, prioritising and practising psychosocial care. The community seemed to facilitate cooperation between them and increase their job satisfaction.

Implications for Practice:

Healthcare workers in nursing homes need time and space to share experiences to establish relationships that increase the quality of cooperation. While diversity among healthcare workers in nursing homes can pose challenges, participating in psychosocial competence building interventions like the ICDP can help it to be viewed as a valuable source of nspiration and means of preventing discrimination against migrant healthcare workers. More research is needed regarding how the ICDP can prevent discrimination and underestimation of migrant healthcare workers.

February 2025: Oksana Isaeva, ICDP trainer and psychology professor at a university in Nizhniy Novgorod, sent us her new book on the ICDP programme. As it could be of interest to those who speak Russian we bring it for you here! Click to download.

First group of facilitators receiving training

The first training to form ICDP facilitators in Germany started with 6 participants in Hannover, during the weekend from 7^th to 9^th of February, 2025.

ICDP trainer, Rita Crecelius, had received support from two organizations which enabled her to start giving training workshops – the Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development in Lower Saxony (nifbe), represented by Merle Drexhage and Gisela Röhling, and the leading Institution for Adult Education in Lower Saxony, AEWB, represented by Christel Wolf.  Rita met these three women in October 2023, and introduced them to the ICDP programme. They immediately recognized that the ICDP approach was strongly needed in context of care and especially in early childhood education in Germany. Consequently, they organized several workshops giving Rita the opportunity to spread the message of ICDP in many parts of the country, in various areas and especially in the Daycares of Lower Saxony. From the many caregivers that had received training from Rita since 2019, some individuals were hoping to get a chance to become facilitators to train new groups of caregivers.

At present, there are 6 participants who are about to become the first ICDP Facilitators in Germany. We see them on the photo above, from left to right in the sitting position: Elisabeth Berg, Jasmin Batel and Ana Vàzquez-Zimmermann. Standing behind, are from left to right: Naira Kocharyan, Inge Wehking, Rita Crecelius (Trainer) and Christel Wolf (AEWB). One more participant, Jörn Blume, is not on the photo. This group of trainees spent three wonderful days in the nice rooms of AEWB in Hannover, exploring the miracle of the 8 ICDP Guidelines of Positive Interaction and getting inspired by the enormous power of the essence of human care. It is a great honour for me, Rita Crecelius, to take the ICDP flame to Germany, which was once ignited by Karsten Hundeide, Henning Rye and Nicoletta Armstrong, ICDP founders. Thank you for all your support and inspiration!

Workshop in Munich

On Saturday, the 22nd of February, about 18 people from different care backgrounds gathered in the Subud house in Munich for a workshop with Rita Crecelius. She introduced them to the ICDP programme with small exercises, video material and stories from her experience as an ICDP facilitator. In summary, most of the participants were amazed to realize what a profound contribution caregivers provide to humanity after becoming aware of their own responsibility as caregivers. In addition, the interconnection between self-care and care for others became obvious; most of the workshop participants were members of the Susila Dharma International organization, leading projects for social support in countries all over the world. Some of them were already in their eighties, but still very present and alive. Thus, it seems to be proved, that conscious caregiving is a way to stay alert and healthy in old age.

ICDP Uzbekistan has been developing through Happy Start preschool in Tashkent, through the work of ICDP trainer, Magdalena Brännström and a local team she had trained.

During 2024, the main activities involved rolling out ICDP courses for caregivers.

Magdalena’s comments:

We held our first facilitator gathering in December 2024, with 9 participants.  It encouraged facilitators to share their experiences and to find ways of continuing the work to reach more people with the programme. Facilitators shared both success stories and challenges. It was a great meeting, a very encouraging gathering. It was wonderful to hear from one facilitator about how they have started to run an ICDP club for parents. In the club, parents continue to meet and talk about issues related to their children and their relationship with them, sharing about their own interactions. This facilitator mentioned a story of a mother, who said that before ICDP she had very high expectations of her daughter to do many things that she was supposed to do. But through the ICDP course, she changed her attitude towards her daughter and is now being far less demanding, letting her daughter just be a child.

One teacher who attended the ICDP course said that it has become easier to work with children by understanding their desires and requirements. The lessons have become more productive. The teacher said: – Having my own child, it helped me to understand and practice ICDР. And as a result, it has become easier for me to work with children.

During spring, Magdalena worked online from Norway and then returned to Uzbekistan in September. She trained one facilitator online, and this facilitator works as a manager in Happy Start preschool, in Tashkent.

About 18 caregivers were fully trained and 11 of them are working in preschools, whereas 7 are parents. All are women, between 20 – 40 years of age.

All together there are 12 facilitators operating in Uzbekistan.

In total 28 people were involved in the work on ICDP in Uzbekistan as participants of different courses, either at facilitator or caregiver level.

In 2024, we have set up a new website for ICDP Uzbekistan:

ICDP Uzbekistan https://www.icdp-uzbekistan.com

An Instagram profile: @icdpuzbekistan (https://www.instagram.com/icdpuzbekistan).

A Telegram channel for facilitators which will encourage collaboration, share course schedules, and allow facilitators to strengthen each other’s sessions.

Future project goals:

We are planning to translate the “ICDP Guide for Facilitators” into the Uzbek language and plan to translate the “ICDP Booklet for Caregivers of Teenagers”.

We have plans to train new facilitators in Tashkent, the main capital but also throughout Uzbekistan in different parts of the country. We are going to train new facilitators in preschools and schools, both private and governmental.

We have plans hosting an ICDP Day, where participants of the caregiver course can connect, learn, and celebrate the program’s values. This would help foster a sense of community and strengthen the program’s impact.

 We will set up Telegram channels for parents and teachers who have completed the caregiver course. These channels would provide updates, encourage sharing, and help keep ICDP principles active in participants’ lives.

Celebrating the Impact of ICDP Training: A Creative Journey to Gratitude and Connection

The completion of an ICDP (International Child Development Programme) training course for caregivers at the end of November in the Republic of Georgia culminated in a heartwarming celebration, filled with appreciation and acknowledgment. For many participants, the training was a deeply transformative experience, and the event marked not only the end of the course but the beginning of meaningful connections and creative expressions that would resonate long after.

One particularly poignant moment came from Guliko (Gulnara) Merebashvili, a mother of three, clinical psychologist, and behaviour analyst. She shared a deeply personal reflection on how the training, led by Nino Margvelashvili, opened her and her family’s eyes to new perspectives on parenting and caregiving. The impact of the ICDP training was so profound that it sparked an extraordinary creative collaboration between Guliko and her husband, Merab Alanya to express gratitude towards the creators of ICDP and its process.

Together, they embarked on a project to create a wooden ICDP House puzzle, a tactile and symbolic representation of the values and principles Guliko had learned through the course. She expressed how, working on each individual piece of the puzzle, she was reminded of the life-changing values that Nino had helped her rediscover in herself. “Building a colourful ICDP house for the second time was a pleasure for us,” Guliko explained, describing how each piece not only connected physically but emotionally with the values she had learned during the sessions.

Photo above: Nino on far left and Guliko’s family

The most fascinating part of the creative process for Guliko was the engraving of the principles on the wooden pieces. “You see how the thoughts and experiences you shared with the group are turning into letters on the wood, letters turn into phrases and phrases into principles. The principles, in overall, are embodying a well-built, colourful house – a symbol of strong, loving and healthy family.” she remarked. 

The wooden ICDP House puzzle, now a tangible representation of their journey, is a lasting reminder of the personal and familial transformation that comes with embracing the principles of positive interactions between the two. For Guliko, sharing these emotions and reflections with her husband was as gratifying as the creation itself, marking a moment of deep connection not only with her training but with the person she loves most.

The celebration that closed the ICDP course was beautiful, serene and emotional. Even more than that, it was a tribute to the enduring impact of the values it imparts, turning gratitude and growth into a creative, meaningful act that inspires and benefits all of us. 

-Nino Margvelashvili

A small team of professionals linked to Normisjon has been working on bringing ICDP to Azerbaijan for many months. Thanks to their efforts, an ICDP training workshop took place in Baku, 17-19 October 2024. The workshop was the first step that started the process of forming a group to become ICDP facilitators, who would eventually implement the ICDP programme with caregivers/parents.

ICDP trainer, Magdalena Brännström, conducted the workshop. There were ten participants/ trainee facilitators, including two psychologists, one doctor, one occupational therapist, and six teachers. Seven of the participants were mothers.   They spent three days learning and discussing the key content of the ICDP programme, namely the eight ICDP guidelines for good interactions. The group connected well with one another through sharing their stories and experiences. This was the first phase of training.

The second phase of training involved doing another ICDP workshop which was held in December 2024. This initial group of trainee facilitators started doing their primary training through in English but as part of the ICDP process they have been  considering how to adapt the programme and its delivery to the Azerbaijani context.

In January 2025, the trainee facilitators started running their first ICDP caregiver courses for parents/caregivers. Two of the groups are engaged in rolling out the ICDP caregiver course in the Azerbaijani language; one group is doing it in Russian and another in English for expats. Three of the groups are conducting courses for caregivers in Baku and one group is situated in a different town.

Read the full report.

In the town of Gdansk, two ICDP facilitators, Lidia Wąsik and Izabela Wójtowicz, conducted a successful ICDP course for seven professionals at the GOPZiPU institute, (“Gdański Ośrodek Promocji Zdrowia i Profilaktyki Uzależnień” or the Gdansk Centre for Health Promotion and Addiction Prevention). It took place during the period between the 18^th of November 2024 and the 13^th of January 2025. The meetings were held on a weekly basis and lasted two hours each.

This was a pilot project representing the introduction and adaptation of ICDP to Poland. The ICDP materials were translated and adapted by Lidia with some help from professional translators.

Lidia explains: “There was a lot of work on creating the course content, Iza and I had many meetings and consultations to adapt the exercises and prepare powerpoint presentations. We also made outlines for each of the meeting and kept a diary. During the course I talked to my colleagues on an ongoing basis and received feedback on how the group was functioning. After each meeting, Iza and I discussed what had happened in the group and drew conclusions. The hybrid form – Iza appearing online and I being present in person – turned out well, but it was demanding. We maintained contact with the group outside the course meetings, sending emails with summaries and home tasks and other relevant content that, for example, did not have time to be discussed at the meeting. In the meantime, I was involved in promoting the program and recruiting new groups in Gdansk”.

The participants’ evaluations were very positive – click here to read.