Occupational Therapy in Haiti: A Pilot Study to Identify Intervention Methods Used during Short-Term Medical Missions.
Sheelagh M Schlegel, Kathleen Mathieson
PMID 32934611WHAT IT FOUND
Occupational therapists on short-term missions to Haiti relied mostly on patient and caregiver education, not telehealth.
They identified language barriers and short trip durations as the main obstacles to ensuring clients continued their care after the team left.
Key findings
01Patient education (84.8%) and caregiver education (81.8%) were the most common methods used by OTs to ensure follow-up, while telehealth was used by only 6.1%.
02The most frequently cited barrier to providing carry-over was the language barrier (45.5%), followed by the short duration of the volunteer trips (24.2%).
03Training local providers was common, with 63.6% of OTs training local providers and 57.6% specifically training rehabilitation technicians.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small (33 respondents) and recruited via convenience and snowball sampling, meaning the results cannot be generalized to all OTs working in Haiti or similar settings. The survey relied on self-reported data, which may be subject to recall bias or social desirability bias. The respondents were predominantly female, White/Caucasian, and from high-income countries, lacking diversity in gender and ethnicity. The survey allowed multiple answers for method questions, which may have led to over-reporting of certain methods or confusion in the data (e.g., discrepancies between general and specific training questions). The study describes methods used but does not evaluate the effectiveness of these methods on patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The paper does not report specific funding sources or conflicts of interest for the authors in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high usage of education and training methods as evidence that they successfully improved patient outcomes. This study only reports what therapists said they did, not whether those actions led to better health for the clients in Haiti.