Challenges in Implementing Wellness Approaches in Childhood Disability Services: Views from the field

Abstract

Despite increasing demand for wellness approaches from disability advocates and consumer groups, they are not implemented routinely in childhood disability services. Interviews were conducted with 23 allied health therapists and managers working within four Australian childhood disability services. They described attempts to embed wellness approaches into their policies and practices. The participants were challenged by professional and pragmatic issues arising from moving towards wellness approaches. The professional challenges concerned changing professional identity and working collaboratively with therapists from different disciplines. In addition, they were challenged by pragmatic issues of balancing quality of care with economic imperatives and the speed of change expected to adopt a new model of care. The findings have implications for the quality and delivery of services and support for children with disabilities and their families, for future research, and for the training of allied health professionals.

Keywords:

• allied health
• best-practice
• children
• early intervention
• families
• implementation
• service delivery
• wellness

Acknowledgements

The findings reported here are based on research funded by an Edith Cowan University Industry Collaboration Grant and the four partner organisations that made the study possible. The authors would like to acknowledge the additional members of the research team—Margaret Crowley, Andrea Hurwood, Vicki Larkins, Jeannine Millsteed, Sonya Murchland, Parimala Raghavendra, Marina Re, and Lynn Roarty. No restrictions have been imposed on free access to, or publication of, the research data. Opinions reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agencies. The authors had no financial or other conflicts of interest.