Parents' and Service Providers' Perceptions of the Family-Centredness of Children's Rehabilitation Services

Abstract

Little is known about the extent to which children's rehabilitation services are delivered in a family-centred manner. In this article we report the results of two province-wide surveys, one conducted with 436 parents and the other with 309 service providers, in which we examined the level of family-centred service in children's rehabilitation centres in Ontario, Canada. In one survey we employed the Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC), a measure of parents' perceptions of the behaviours of service providers, and in the other we employed the Family-Centered Program Rating Scale (FamPRS), a measure of service providers' perceptions of the importance and occurrence of family-centred service. The results of the two surveys were very similar. The responses of both parents and service providers indicated that centres were doing well with respect to the interpersonal aspects of service delivery, but that the provision of information was a relatively weak area. The implications of the findings and the utility of the two measurement tools are discussed, as are directions for future research.

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Notes on contributors

Gillian King

Michael Lepp, PT, is in private practice, Associate Instructor of the Upledger Institute, and Clinical Instructor, Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry, Cleveland, OH.

Marie McKenzie, MS, OTR, is in private practice. She was Coordinator of Occupational Therapy at Scottish Rite Hospital at the time of this study.

Heather Miller, MS, OTR/L, is currently employed by Madison County Educational Service Center, providing therapy services to the county's pre-schools. This research was completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements of an MS degree at Ohio State University.