Dr. Bonsall: I am really excited to be speaking to you today about my research. I have worked on this as part of my PhD dissertation, and then also here in the University of Missouri. I am excited to share it with others and hear about how other people are using this in practice.
What is Family-Centered Care?
What is family-centered care? As a practitioner or a student, I want you to stop for a second and think about what family-centered care is to you. Secondly, think about a time in your practice when you saw a really good example of family-centered care. Keep that example of family-centered care in your mind as we go out throughout this talk and see if that changes a little bit
Within the AOTA Practice Framework, it defines the client as:
“Person or persons (including those involved in the care of a client), group (collective of individuals, e.g., families, workers, students, or community members), or population (collective of groups or individuals living in a similar locale—e.g., city, state, or country—or sharing the same or like concerns).” (p.S41).
I wanted to also bring in a definition of family-centered care from another profession. This is an early definition of family-centered care by Brewer and others.
Family-centered care is a multi-professional movement aimed at supporting families through recognizing the pivotal role that families play in the lives of children (Brewer, Mcpherson, Magrab, & Hutchins, 1989).
They define family-centered care as a "multi-professional movement aimed at supporting families" through recognizing the pivotal role "that families play in the lives of children". It is really important to recognize what families are doing for children, and how families are helping children.
Beliefs of Family-Centered Care
There are some basic beliefs about family-centered care (Dempsey & Keen, 2008). As I talk about these beliefs, think about how these beliefs relate to that story that you thought of in your practice that represents family-centered care.
- The family is the constant in the child's life (not the professional).
This stood out to me as an occupational therapist. One day I was talking to a mother of a client and I had an epiphany. It just came to my mind that at the end of the day I was going to go home to my family, and she was going to go home with her child. He was going to be with her, and not just at the end of the day but over the weekend and after I was done working with the child. That parent was going to be a constant in the child's life, before me and after me. It was important to realize this as it helped me to understand the importance of addressing the parents' needs.
- The child is best helped by also helping the family.
This is an extremely important tenet of family-centered care. I think family-centered care can be boiled down to just this one belief. I think sometimes people think, "Oh, we're setting a goal that relates to the family. That must be family-centered care". But if you look at these other beliefs, there is a lot more to that.
- Family is in the best position to determine need and well-being of the child.
Children function within families and families function with children. It is important to understand that the families are making the decisions, which is the next one, but it is important to understand that the families understand where the problems with the disability are.
- Family choice and decision making
This goes throughout the therapy process. Family choice should be what is evaluated and integral to goal setting. Family choice in where treatment occurs or how treatment occurs. All of these things are really important because, as we just talked about, the family is such an important part of the child's life and the child is such an important part of the family.
