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More than half of poor African American infants are born into "fragile families" and nearly half grow up in single-mother families with little or no father involvement. However, most prenatal interventions fail to help unmarried mothers talk and plan together with their baby's father, especially when fathers are nonresidential. This article details one of the nation's first interventions explicitly designed to support coparenting and triangular (mother-father-infant) relationships in African American families where the parents are unmarried, be they coupled or uncoupled. The Figuring It Out for the Child (FIOC) project in St. Petersburg, FL, successfully partnered with local community leaders in designing, implementing, and evaluating a novel dyadic, prenatal intervention enrolling both coresidential and noncoresidential African American parents. The authors provide an overview of the state of the field when the project began, explain the significance of the project's community connectedness, summarize details of outreach efforts, and highlight noteworthy findings relevant to this issue.

Strong, positive coparenting alliances play adaptive functions in a wide variety of family systems. For unmarried, expectant parents in nonromantic relationships, impediments to developing a positive coparenting alliance are formidable. However, these obstacles must be overcome if unmarried fathers are to stay engaged and coparent their child together with their children's mothers. This article spotlights Figuring It Out for the Child (FIOC), a Brady Education Foundation-sponsored initiative for expectant unmarried first-time African American parents. FIOC builds on the expectant parents' often untapped and overlooked desires and resolve to create a positive life for their baby, and it helps them build bridges to communicate, collaborate, and address obstacles to coparenting--whether they are co-resident or not. The authors highlight the travels of one remarkable family through the FIOC intervention in this article.

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The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify recurring themes about impending coparenthood common among prenatal dyadic conversations shared between unmarried parents. Forty Black mothers and fathers expecting a first baby together met with a male-female mentor team for facilitated dialogues six times during the pregnancy, with sessions audiotaped and transcribed. Guided by basic elements of grounded theory, coders identified five cross-cutting themes discussed by coparents relevant to their coparenting expectancies: (a) establishing the baby's family system; (b) supports and threats to coparenting efforts; (c) reflecting on fatherhood—Connecting past with future father legacies; (d) acculturating the child/ handling parenting differences; and (e) effects of relationship status on coparenting. These themes underscored a common commitment fathers and mothers shared in figuring circumstances out for their child. Analyses portray a rich, generative, and introspective set of dialogues reflecting shared deliberation about family dynamics after the baby's arrival. This study's findings address a significant gap in the literature and highlight the value of narrative methodologies to understand joint narratives of unmarried Black coparents more thoroughly as they transition to new parenthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible Summary: What is known on the subject?: In mental healthcare environments, there are times when people are forced into care (i.e. to take medications or be hospitalized) when they may not want it.It is difficult to understand how person‐centred care (i.e. supporting patients to lead decisions about their care) can occur within coercive settings.There is a gap in the literature about this topic as few studies have explored it. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: This paper examines the research publicly available to better understand if person‐centred care can exist at times when people are forced into mental health care.The paper develops a conceptual framework, RAISe (Relationship, Agency, Information, Safe environment), for understanding this matter in order to help people apply this concept in practiceIn certain situations, with caring and respectful approaches, with and for patients, it is possible to provide person‐centred care at times when mental health care is forced.RAISe identifies ways in which this can be done by clinicians while working with people. What are the implications for practice?: These person‐centred approaches need to be applied across mental health systems so that people in forced mental healthcare scenarios continue to experience dignity and respect.This is particularly important for nurses who are often the ones providing direct care to patients in these environments. Introduction: Person‐centred care (PCC) is founded on a theoretical premise that the person who the care issue pertains to directs the decisions relating to them. This can raise ethical challenges when mental health care is forced. Aim: This paper reports on how PCC is provided in coercive mental healthcare environments and its outcomes, where reported. Method: A scoping review methodology was utilized to search the literature in English until December 2019 (inclusive). Results: Twenty articles were included in the review. The information found was diverse and addressed different aspects of PCC in coercive mental healthcare environments. Discussion: Overall, this area is understudied. Despite ethical challenges, there are opportunities to provide PCC in coercive mental healthcare environments. A novel conceptual framework, RAISe (Relationship, Agency, Information, Safe environment), is presented to assist in applying PCC in these environments. Further research investigating how to employ these practices across systems should occur. Implications for Practice: This review acknowledges the challenges of providing PCC in coercive mental healthcare environments, while suggesting that this type of care can still be delivered in general as well as specific ways. This is especially relevant for nurses who provide direct care within these environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than half of poor African American infants are born into "fragile families" and nearly half grow up in single-mother families with little or no father involvement. However, most prenatal interventions fail to help unmarried mothers talk and plan together with their baby's father, especially when fathers are nonresidential. This article details one of the nation's first interventions explicitly designed to support coparenting and triangular (mother-father- infant) relationships in African American families where the parents are unmarried, be they coupled or uncoupled. The Figuring It Out for the Child (FIOC) project in St. Petersburg, FL, successfully partnered with local community leaders in designing, implementing, and evaluating a novel dyadic, prenatal intervention enrolling both coresidential and non- coresidential African American parents. The authors provide an overview of the state of the field when the project began, explain the significance of the project's community connectedness, summarize details of outreach efforts, and highlight noteworthy findings relevant to this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong, positive coparenting alliances play adaptive functions in a wide variety of family systems. For unmarried, expectant parents in nonromantic relationships, impediments to developing a positive coparenting alliance are formidable. However, these obstacles must be overcome if unmarried fathers are to stay engaged and coparent their child together with their children's mothers. This article spotlights Figuring It Out for the Child (FIOC), a Brady Education Foundation-sponsored initiative for expectant unmarried first-time African American parents. FIOC builds on the expectant parents' often untapped and overlooked desires and resolve to create a positive life for their baby, and it helps them build bridges to communicate, collaborate, and address obstacles to coparenting--whether they are co-resident or not. The authors highlight the travels of one remarkable family through the FIOC intervention in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Role Transition for School Nurses in the Spokane Public Schools A transformation has occurred in the school nurse's role in the Spokane (Wash.) Public Schools. The major goal nine years [...]