Parents Are Great Teachers to Therapists
By: Ashley Akers, M.S. OTR/L
Due to COVID-19, telehealth (the provision of healthcare
remotely via electronic information and telecommunication technologies), has
seemingly overnight changed how therapists around the world provide services.
As an occupational therapist who is used to working hands-on with her kiddos
daily (maybe to correct pencil grip or to provide deep pressure to facilitate calming
for example), telehealth has admittedly been a novel experience in which I have
had to quickly expand my thinking about how I provide services.
A question I have often asked myself during these times is:
“How can I make sure telehealth is as effective and as helpful as possible for
my kiddos’ and their families?” This question led me to research about OT and
telehealth, and in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting to find too much. Let me
tell you that I was pleasantly surprised! There ARE studies out there and
studies still being done right now that are empowering us therapists to better
understand telehealth and how to use it to serve YOU. One article I really
enjoyed reading discussed parents’ perspectives on occupational therapy
services through telehealth. Listed below are recurring themes that were identified
from the parents in the study “Parent Perspectives Of An Occupational Therapy
Telehealth Intervention” from the University of Kansas (2019) that were big
“take-aways” for me:
1) Parents believed
that telehealth was COMPATIBLE with their daily life and parents’ goals for
their children. Many parents felt that OT through telehealth better addressed
their concerns and goals for their children than other practice settings such
as schools, or even outpatient. (Wow! This is all we want as OT’s- to improve
our kiddos independence in their daily lives in a way that is meaningful to the
kiddo and their family! This was hands-down the biggest take-away for me. I
have had first-hand experience with this in the past few weeks, when some of you
have told me that certain goals are not high on your priority list but other
skills I hadn’t considered are! I am grateful you told me because now I can
better help your family! I need to make sure that first and foremost I am
addressing what you value as important for your child to learn and that is my
commitment to you all.)
2) Parents found
telehealth to be CONVENIENT for their schedules and made therapy accessible to
more children
3) Parents believed that telehealth allowed therapy to be
more COLLABORATIVE
4) Parents reported a feeling of EMPOWERMENT to better help
their children as they tried new strategies and were able to problem-solve with
the therapist (I loved this one!! Parents, you all have become rock stars
during this time! I have been continuously impressed with how well you all have
been working on goals outside of sessions. A parent the other day told me “He
has been holding his crayon with a tripod grasp and his 1:1 reinforcement
schedule has helped him to stay motivated” and that was a GREAT encouragement
to me and exactly why I love being an OT!!)
As much as we may “teach”, you all as parents are so
valuable to us and teach us just as much, if not more! So, in reading this
study, I want to ask all you parents out there some of the questions from this insightful
study which include:
1) What do you like most about telehealth?
2) What do you like least about telehealth? (Tell me! We
want to know.)
3) How has telehealth been different from your past
experiences with therapy sessions, whether good or bad?
You can read the full study at the link below, just click
“Download the PDF”: http://telerehab.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/Telerehab/article/view/6274
More great research about the benefits AND challenges of
telehealth can be found at:
https://otpotential.com/blog/research-articles-about-telehealth-ot
References
WALLISCH, Anna et al. Parent Perspectives of an Occupational
Therapy Telehealth Intervention. International Journal of
Telerehabilitation, [S.l.], v. 11, n. 1, p. 15-22, June 2019.
ISSN 1945-2020. doi:https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2019.6274.
No comments:
Post a Comment