Learning and Sharing Together to Work Better Together: Service Providers' and Parents' Perceptions of the...

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Disability Studies
• Healthcare Collaboration

Background:

• ENabling VISions And Growing Expectations (ENVISAGE) focuses on strengths-based child development and empowering parents of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
• Previous ENVISAGE programs (Families, Service Providers) showed positive impacts.
• An integrated version (ENVISAGE-Integrated) was co-developed for parents and service providers, delivered via online workshops.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the pilot of the ENVISAGE-Integrated program.
• To assess the collaborative learning experiences of parents and service providers.
• To identify benefits and challenges of the integrated approach.

Main Methods:

• Pilot study of ENVISAGE-Integrated with five cohorts.
• Co-facilitation by a parent and service provider.
• Weekly workshop surveys and post-program semi-structured interviews.
• Quantitative analysis using descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney tests.
• Qualitative analysis using thematic analysis.

Main Results:

• Nineteen service providers and 11 parents participated.
• High agreement on comfort, learning, and meaningfulness of joint participation.
• Key themes: importance of collaboration, expanded understanding of working together, appreciation of each other's realities.
• Parents reported connection and support; service providers reported validation of practice.

Conclusions:

• ENVISAGE-Integrated facilitates beneficial collaborative learning between parents and service providers.
• Findings suggest promise for the integrated model.
• Careful recruitment and balanced group composition are crucial for program success.