As of June 2017, Norwegian health personnel are required by law to identify and address the needs of siblings of children with chronic health disorders. This paper describes the development of a manual-based intervention for siblings.

To create a knowledge- and evidence-based intervention, the developmental process involved literature and internet searches, a descriptive study of sibling support groups with 80 participating children, workshops with practitioner and user participation, and the piloting of the intervention with 68 children and their parents.

The result was an integrated parent and sibling intervention (SIBS) focusing on strengthening communication about the diagnosis of the affected child and the challenges of siblings. The SIBS intervention comprises five sessions: three separate sibling and parent group sessions, and two sessions where the sibling and the parent talk in pairs with supervision. The SIBS intervention received positive evaluations from children and parents.

We offer preliminary evidence that the intensive and focused SIBS intervention may identify and address the needs of siblings of children with chronic disorders. The SIBS intervention may be implemented in future municipal health care given recent legislation requirements.