Building Families' Capacities: Community Forums with Parents and Occupational Therapists.
Marie Grandisson, Sarah Martin-Roy, Justine Marcotte and 5 others
PMID 37186793WHAT IT FOUND
Parents and therapists identified nine principles for family-centred care, prioritising flexible scheduling, avoiding home-programme overload, and addressing siblings' needs.
These are expert recommendations for service design, not tested interventions that prove better child outcomes.
Key findings
01Participants emphasized that services must avoid negative impacts on the whole family, including parents feeling pressured to act as therapists, siblings being asked to help, and children missing school or leisure activities.
02Flexibility was a core theme, with participants warning against assuming families want frequent sessions, home visits, or specific communication methods, and instead advocating for tailored options like video follow-ups or phone calls.
03Therapists were advised to pace information carefully to prevent overwhelming parents, avoiding jargon and limiting home exercises unless the family explicitly demonstrates interest and capacity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample was homogeneous, with 97.5% of participants identifying as female and all parents speaking French as their first language, so the findings may not reflect the perspectives of fathers or families from other cultural backgrounds. Participants were recruited via convenience sampling through organizations and social media, which may bias the results toward families already engaged with services. The study reports perspectives on service design and does not measure actual clinical outcomes for children or families. The forums took place during the pandemic, which may have influenced participants' views on online versus in-person services.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture and the Fonds de recherche du Québec. A mother of a child with special needs and a coordinator of a social occupational therapy clinic joined the research team and contributed to all stages of the project.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these nine principles as evidence-based interventions that have been proven to improve child outcomes. This is a qualitative study reporting the preferences and suggestions of parents and therapists on how to design services, not a trial testing whether these strategies work.