Expanding Occupational Therapy Services within the Foster Care System
Briley Trugman
Citations
Abstract
Background: Children in the foster care system are at a higher risk of poor health outcomes and well-being. Foster families are not afforded the necessary education and tools on how to access needed healthcare services. Experts in this area believe that this population would greatly benefit from participation in occupational therapy (OT). Objective: This project aims to educate foster families about OT by 1) identifying healthcare services that foster families are receiving, 2) identifying needs for healthcare services, and 3) analyzing the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF) to demonstrate how the scope of OT matches the diverse needs of this population. ACOTE Area: Primary area - Program Development and Evaluation; Secondary area - Research Methods: The researcher developed an educational program to train foster families on OT and the OTPF. Next, trauma-informed care (TIC) was discussed as this approach is commonly used to help treat youth in foster care. Finally, the training included information about sensory-based interventions and additional support resources. Foster families from FaithBridge Foster Care were asked to complete a 5 question pre- and post-survey, which were developed utilizing Qualtrics. The results assess foster parents’ knowledge and confidence level about OT and how to best support their child(ren)’s healthcare needs, both prior to and after reviewing the educational program. Data was collected during the live virtual presentation and from the on-demand training course. Results: Results were analyzed using a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test (N=6). Question 1, 1B, 3, and 5 demonstrate a trend of improvement in parent confidence level, and when comparing the medians of the surveys altogether, results are statistically significant (p = .026). Therefore, the researcher concluded that the medians of parent confidence level are significantly different before and after reviewing this educational program. Conclusion and Relevance: This educational program has the potential to benefit many foster families in the future by improving caregivers’ understanding of OT’s role within the foster care system. In turn, parents who reviewed this program felt more confident in their ability to support their child(ren)’s healthcare needs and development. The OTPF can be implemented to help bridge the gap in services and meet the diverse needs of foster families.
