Child Development Allied Health Services in Rural and Remote Areas: A Systematic Scoping Review of Drivers, Barriers and Enabling Strategies to Delivery of Services.
Georgia Gosse, Saravana Kumar, Helen Banwell and 1 others
PMID 39991802WHAT IT FOUND
New rural child development services were created because existing care was inadequate, travel was long, staff were scarce and waits were long.
Delivery in schools, homes and local clinics, plus training parents and teachers, was reported most often.
Key findings
01The main reasons for new models were inadequate services, extensive travel, workforce shortages, long waiting lists, poor knowledge of needs and services, and low resources.
02The most common enabling strategy was place-based delivery in local environments such as schools, homes and visiting clinics.
03The most frequent barrier was challenges with partnerships, including parents, teachers and community engagement.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This is a scoping review, not a test of interventions; it reports themes from included citations and cannot show which strategy caused better care. The authors state there was no cause-and-effect data and no data to demonstrate the impact of enabling strategies. The review included only citations reporting child-based outcomes, so process-only services were excluded. Children's own perspectives were little or not included.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the listed enabling strategies as proven ways to improve child development. This scoping review mapped reported drivers, strategies and barriers, but it did not test effects or show which model works best.