Evaluating a Family Capacity-Building Service: Are We Doing More Good Than Harm?

Area of Science:

• Pediatric occupational therapy
• Family-centered care
• Child development

Background:

• Parents of children with special needs often face significant stress and health issues.
• Occupational therapy interventions aim to build parental capacity but can be burdensome.
• Effective delivery models for these services are needed to avoid overwhelming families.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a flexible, capacity-building occupational therapy service.
• To understand parent and therapist perspectives on the service's outcomes, strengths, and weaknesses.
• To identify best practices for supporting families of children with special needs.

Main Methods:

• Convergent parallel mixed methods design.
• Involved seven families receiving occupational therapy services.
• Collected data on parents' and occupational therapists' perspectives.

Main Results:

• Parents reported improved child understanding, more positive attitudes towards challenges, and increased confidence.
• Parents experienced more satisfactory family routines.
• Therapists emphasized nonjudgmental collaboration, flexibility, and prioritizing family-identified needs.

Conclusions:

• Flexible occupational therapy can effectively build family capacity without causing undue burden.
• The study offers a model for occupational therapy services to support families.
• Guidance is provided for institutions on developing supportive capacity-building programs.