Measuring family-centred practices of professionals in early intervention services in Taiwan

BACKGROUND

Family-centred practices emphasize professional supports for forming partnerships with families in early intervention. The Measure of Processes of Care for Service Providers (MPOC-SP) measures the perceptions of paediatric service providers in supporting children and families. This study aimed to establish reliability of the Chinese version of the MPOC-SP (C-MPOC-SP) and to examine professional perceptions of family-centred practices in relation to professional discipline and years of experience.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 94 physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, social workers and early childhood educators completed the C-MPOC-SP. Thirty-seven professionals completed the measure a second time within 2-4 weeks for test-retest reliability. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were examined by Cronbach's α and intra-class correlation coefficient. Comparisons were made across professional disciplines by multivariate analyses of variance followed by analyses of variance. Relationships between years of experience and ratings of family-centred practices were examined by Pearson's correlation coefficients (r).

RESULTS

Cronbach's α for items on each of the four scales of the C-MPOC-SP ranged from 0.80 to 0.92, indicating adequate internal consistency. Intra-class correlation coefficient between the initial and repeat completion of the C-MPOC-SP for each scale ranged from 0.56 to 0.77, indicating adequate to excellent test-retest reliability. Mean ratings for the Communicating Specific Information were significantly higher for physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists than for social workers (P = 0.001). The C-MPOC-SP scores were positively correlated with years of experience for all four scales (r = 0.23-0.38; P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

This study established adequate internal consistency and adequate to excellent test-retest reliability of the C-MPOC-SP in measuring perceptions of family centeredness of early intervention service providers. Cross-discipline differences were found in communicating specific information about the child. Higher perceptions of family centeredness were associated with more years of experience. The results support the utility of the C-MPOC-SP in professional education and programme evaluation of early intervention services in Taiwan.

Family-centred care for children and young people with cerebral palsy: results from an Italian multicenter observational study

BACKGROUND

Family‐centred care (FCC) is recognized as the model of best practice for the provision of services for children who have physical disabilities and their families.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the overall perception of FCC provided in an Italian network of 17 rehabilitation services, as perceived by parents of children with cerebral palsy and professionals, and to explore whether children, families, service providers and service‐related characteristics influence parent satisfaction regarding service provision in an FCC practice.

METHODS

The Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC‐20) for parents/caregivers and the Measure of Processes of Care for Service Providers (MPOC‐SP) for healthcare providers were used. For the purposes of the study, an ad hoc information form was developed to collect information concerning children, families, service providers and services.

RESULTS

A total of 382 parents/caregivers and 269 healthcare providers completed the MPOC questionnaires. Parents and service providers both identified the domains for enabling partnerships and interpersonal sensitivity as a strength, while the domain relating to general information was always scored the lowest. An advanced maternal age, being a single parent, being unemployed and having lower socio‐economic status were factors identified as individually predictive of lower FCC scores on the MPOC‐20. Higher intensity treatment, inpatient services, primary healthcare settings and settings identified with limited financial resources and reduced space/time for each family were other variables significantly associated with less favourable MPOC‐20 ratings.

CONCLUSIONS

The perception of FCC provided was fairly positive, with some areas of improvement, such as the domain of provision of information. Professionals should, therefore, provide better communication and take more time in giving information and attention to parents. Potential sources of variation in parent perceptions of FCC based on family characteristics and the organization of services highlight the importance the need to support services through the provision of greater financial and human resources.

Is a family-centred initiative a family-centred service? A case of a Conductive Education setting for children with cerebral palsy

BACKGROUND

From the moment a child is diagnosed as having cerebral palsy, families have to cope on a daily basis with the multifaceted challenges of life-long disability management. Family-centred service is embraced as a 'best practice' model because of accumulating evidence supporting its positive influence on parents and children's outcomes. Nevertheless, research comparing parent and provider perspectives on family-centred practices of educational service providers in education settings is scarce. The aims of this study were to compare the extent to which parents and conductors experience the service delivery in Tsad Kadima, the Association for Conductive Education in Israel, as being family-centred, as well as comparing parents' perception of different educational settings as being family-centred.

METHODS

Measurements of family-centeredness, the Israeli Measure of Processes of Care for families (MPOC-20) and for service providers (MPOC-SP), were administrated to 38 teacher conductors and 83 families of children with cerebral palsy (aged 1-14), from different conductive educational settings.

RESULTS

Parents and conductors perceive Conductive Education service as being highly family centred in most domains, rating respectful and supportive care the highest and providing general information the lowest, thus indicating an area where improvements should be made. Parents perceived the service they receive to be more family-centred than conductor's perception about their own activities. In addition, educational setting (day care, pre-school and school) was found to be associated with parent's scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study, which is the first to examine family-centred service provision in a conductive special education setting, from the perspectives of both parents and conductors, provides significant evidence for high-quality services in these settings.

Family-centredness of professionals who support people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: validation of the Dutch 'Measure of Processes of Care for Service Providers' (MPOC-SP-PIMD)

A Dutch version of the 'Measure of Processes of Care for Service Providers' (MPOC-SP) was developed to determine the extent to which professionals apply the principles of family-centred care in the rehabilitation of children with physical disabilities. However, no data were available on the reliability and construct validity of this instrument when it comes to supporting people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). This study aimed to validate an adapted version of the Dutch MPOC-SP for assessing the family-centred behaviours of professionals who support this group (MPOC-SP-PIMD). A total of 105 professionals took part in the study. A Mokken scale analysis was conducted to determine whether the instrument satisfied the assumptions of both monotone homogeneity and double monotonicity. Loevinger's scalability coefficient (H) was used for the scalability of the entire scale and of each item separately. Rho was calculated as a measure of the internal consistency of the scales. The analyses resulted in two scales: a nine-item scale interpreted as 'Showing Interpersonal Sensitivity', with H=.39 and rho=.76, and a seven-item scale interpreted as 'Treating People Respectfully', with H=.49 and rho=.78. A validated version of the MPOC-SP-PIMD, suitable for supporting people with PIMD, consists of a subset of two scales from the original Dutch MPOC-SP. This instrument can be used to compare the family-centredness of professionals with parent's expectations and views. This information can be used in practice to match the support to the needs of the parents and family of the child with PIMD.