Date Presented 04/03/2025
An interdisciplinary faculty team piloted Raising Families, a postpandemic, sustainable caregiver-and-young-child model of family support. This study explored perceptions of caregivers, students, and clinicians who collaborated in program delivery.
Primary Author and Speaker: Zahava Friedman
Contributing Authors: Miara Joy Mandap, Brianna Somma, Sabrina Kenny, Jessica Latawiec, John Lee, Kate Nealon, Keri Giordano, Kelly Sullivan-Jones
PURPOSE: Families of young children have experienced unique occupational challenges mid- and post-pandemic, impacting parent mental health and child development (Friedman, 2024; Henderson et al., 2020). Created to serve these families, Raising Families is a scalable, sustainable parent-and-child support model with a focus on enhancing child development, building caregiver self-efficacy, and increasing capacity of students and clinicians through interprofessional service delivery (Chien et al., 2021). This study aimed to understand perceptions of caregivers, students and clinicians who participated in Raising Families.
DESIGN: Mixed-method design was utilized to gather participant perspectives, via completion of Likert-style survey, alongside semi-structured focus group and interview data.
METHOD: A total of 11 participants, five caregivers, four clinicians and two students, completed a post-program survey and shared experiences via focus group or individual/ dyadic interview. Eight participant transcripts, namely six individual interviews, one dyadic interview and one focus group, were analyzed by a team of researchers using a six-step method of reflexive thematic analysis (Campbell et al., 2021).
RESULTS: Analysis of survey responses via descriptive statistics revealed that participants felt they had gained knowledge of themselves, each other and child development. Reflexive thematic analysis of transcript narratives revealed important implications for interprofessional service delivery models, categorized as logistical, emotional and clinical feedback shared by the participants. These included the importance of providing additional time for planning, the need for clear organizational structure, and the value of shared clinical challenges.
IMPACT STATEMENT: This research can lead to expansion and refinement of interprofessional service delivery models to support child development, caregiver self efficacy and clinical experiences for health-profession students.
References
Campbell, K. A., Orr, E., Durepos, P., Nguyen, L., Li, L., Whitmore, C., ... & Jack, S. M. (2021). Reflexive thematic analysis for applied qualitative health research. The Qualitative Report, 26(6), 2011–2028. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2021.5010
Chien, C. W., Lai, Y. Y. C., Lin, C. Y., & Graham, F. (2021). Occupational performance coaching with parents to promote community participation of young children with developmental disabilities: Protocol for a feasibility and pilot randomized control trial. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 9, 720885. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.720885
Friedman, Z. L. (2024). Breakfast club lessons: Staff perspectives on a yearlong collaborative teletherapy initiative during COVID-19. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 56(2), 151–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2022.2119447
Henderson, M. D., Schmus, C. J., McDonald, C. C., & Irving, S. Y. (2020). The covid-19 pandemic and the impact on child mental health: a socio-ecological perspective. Pediatric Nursing, 46(6), 267–272.
