Roles and responsibilities of parents and therapists in a Kindergarten Treatment Centre

Introduction Family centred practice is regarded as best practice in achieving positive outcomes for children and families. Literature states it is important to establish roles in collaboration and responsibilities jointly determined rather than dictated by health care providers. A common problem is that it is not clear what expectations parents and professionals have towards each other considering collaboration with respect to treatment and support of a child. The organisation’s vision is mutual self-reliance. Nevertheless there are doubts about if the current procedure is family centred and beneficial to establish mutual self-reliance.

Aim This study explores the problems parents and therapists experience with the current procedure for determining roles and responsibilities at Kindergarten Treatment centre ‘t Steyntje and which aspects of the procedure they would like to change, and an exploration of desires to use technology to facilitate collaboration.

Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted at one Kindergarten Treatment Centre in the South of the Netherlands with therapists and parents of children with an intellectual disability with or without physical disabilities and/or behaviour problems. The interviews focussed on the process of collaboration in determining parents´ and therapists´ roles and responsibilities. Data analyses were conducted by directed content analysis.

Results 5 therapists and 4 parents participated in this research. There is no fixed procedure to initiate and maintain contact with parents and to determine parents’ and therapists’ roles and responsibilities. The only fixed moment is the support plan meeting between the parents of the child and all professionals involved in the child’s Kindergarten treatment centre. Occasionally, there is an additional meeting when there are important issues to discuss. Most therapists and parents want a clear and fixed procedure with more contact between both parties to gain insights into the child´s actions during treatment and at home, and to improve the development of the child. Technology is suggested as a tool to facilitate this contact. However, personal and environmental factors such as time pressure, motivation, parents’ attendance during drop-off and pick-up of their child, overburden, self-efficacy, cognition, confidence, personality, financial possibilities and policies, can make it difficult to achieve this preferred contact.

Conclusion Parents and therapists at Kindergarten Treatment centre ‘t Steyntje desire to agree on a clear procedure to gain more insight into the child’s life and treatment and to improve the development of the child by determining roles and responsibilities. Although the desire for more collaboration exists, this study involved a small number of parents which effects the generalization to other Kindergarten Treatment centres.

The hypothesis is that all procedures look different per therapist and parent collaboration and all experiences are different. Nevertheless, there possibly will be similarities in experiences and wishes for the future.

Semi structured interviews: March 2017-April 2017. Transcribe interviews etc.: March 2017-May 2017. Analyze data: May 2017- June 2017. Write thesis (results, discussion, conclusion): June 2017

It is expected that from March 2017 until April 2017 semi structured interviews will be conducted involving parents (n=10) of children between 0 and 7 years old with intellectual disabilities who receive treatment from one or more therapists of the Kindergarten Centre. Furthermore, semi structured interviews will be conducted with all of the employed therapists (n=5).