Family Engagement in Services During COVID-19: A Mixed-Methods Study of Caregiver and Staff Perspectives.
Erin R Barnett, Erin M Knight-Zhang, Hannah G Haskell and 4 others
PMID 36372630WHAT IT FOUND
Caregivers and pediatric service staff described family engagement as variable and often lower after pandemic restrictions began.
Telehealth and flexible contact helped some families, but poor internet, transport, child care, and needing to see physical or speech therapy problems hindered others.
Key findings
01Qualitative interviews showed mixed perspectives on family engagement, with trends toward decreased engagement, and staff survey responses indicated more staff felt their clinic or center was doing worse since COVID-19.
02Flexible communication and telehealth were reported as facilitators, while poor internet, transportation, child care, and difficulty presenting physical or speech therapy problems were reported as barriers.
03Caregivers generally reported clinics and centers were less able to identify and respond to family needs than staff reported, with large discrepancies for economic needs and caregiver mental health.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The findings come from one rural northern New England community that was largely White non-Hispanic, so they may not fit other populations. The study reports perceptions and descriptive survey counts, not tested effects on engagement or health outcomes. The staff survey was not powered for statistical analysis. Interviews and surveys were collected at different points in the pandemic, so the qualitative and quantitative data may reflect different levels of stress and service availability. The caregiver survey used retrospective pre-pandemic questions, so it asked caregivers to recall earlier behavior rather than measure it before the pandemic. Caregivers were recruited partly through family resource centers, which may bias the sample toward families already connected to those centers. The number of participants varied across analyses, such as 57 caregivers surveyed and 50 caregivers reported in Table 3. Researchers did not specifically operationalize high and low caregiver engagement and relied on center staff to define it.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that telehealth caused lower engagement or that flexible communication improves family engagement. The study is descriptive, underpowered, and reports mixed perceptions from one rural community.