Profiles of functioning of children with cerebral palsy in Finland: analysis of multi-professional family meetings

Abstract

Purpose

To explore what aspects of and how the child’s functioning are discussed during a multi-professional team meeting when planning goals and interventions for rehabilitation.

Materials and methods

Multiprofessional rehabilitation meetings were videotaped, the discussions transcribed and all content related to the child’s function was linked to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health comprehensive Core Set for children with cerebral palsy.

Results

Thirteen families gave their informed consent to participate. In nine meetings the child was present and one or two parents attended all meetings. The mean age of the children was 10 years (3–17 years). Functioning was described as wide-ranging and covered most components of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Body structures were mentioned rarely, and of body functions, musculoskeletal functions were most commonly discussed. The focus was on activities and participation, the most discussed aspects being learning, applying knowledge and mobility.

Conclusions

The results showed that both children and their parents were involved when rehabilitation was planned. The comprehensive ICF Core Set for children and young people with CP was in this study used to analyze the areas of functioning discussed, but could also be useful in clinical practice to identify relevant areas of functioning.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Identifying areas of functioning facilitate communication among families and multi-disciplinary professionals during rehabilitation team meetings.

• Important areas of participation are overlooked during intervention planning meetings, which could be improved using ICF-based tools.

• The comprehensive ICF Core Set for cerebral palsy is a useful framework to identify areas of functioning in Finland.

Keywords:

• Functioning
• cerebral palsy
• ICF
• Core Sets
• multiprofessional
• family

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the children and youth and their parents as well as the personnel in the rehabilitation teams at the participating organizations, Virginia Mattila for her help in polishing the language and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland for financial support. This article is dedicated to the memory of Arja Veijola, PhD, who was one of the initiators of this study, but who passed away during the research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.