Occupation-Based Collaborator Engagement in Research: Developing a Cerebral Palsy Task Force

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Rehabilitation Science
• Community-Based Participatory Research

Background:

• Effective community collaboration is essential for improving healthcare outcomes, particularly for individuals with cerebral palsy (CP).
• Challenges exist in achieving meaningful multi-collaborator involvement in research settings.
• Patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research requires robust community partnerships.

Purpose of the Study:

• To employ an occupation-based approach for engaging community collaborators in developing a CP Task Force.
• To initiate patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research for CP.
• To evaluate CP Task Force members' perspectives on their roles and experiences.

Main Methods:

• A repeated cross-sectional design was utilized.
• 18 CP Task Force members completed 39 surveys assessing team culture, trust, and role satisfaction.
• Engagement activities focused on social participation, leisure, play, education, and work.
• Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were performed on survey data.

Main Results:

• Participants reported high levels of satisfaction and engagement with the Task Force.
• Key themes identified included inclusivity, effective communication, accessibility, and expanded engagement.
• The occupation-based approach successfully built rapport and a shared sense of purpose.

Conclusions:

• Occupation-based engagement strategies can effectively enhance collaboration among diverse stakeholders.
• This approach is valuable for establishing a CP Task Force to support patient-centered research.
• Successful collaboration leads to improved rapport and a unified sense of purpose in research initiatives.