Medical Employment Agency New Zealand & United Kingdom, Medical Staffing International

Medical Staffing International/ NZAOT Occupational Therapy Achievement Award 2011

Coaching parents to provide effective help for their children

The winner of this year’s Medical Staffing International NZAOT Achievement Award, Dr Fiona Graham, has developed an intervention that focuses on coaching families.

OPC (Occupational Performance Coaching) is used with parents of children facing challenges in everyday life. It is gradually being adopted by therapists both in New Zealand and internationally. This innovative intervention programme has already proved itself by enabling children with skill delays to perform daily tasks more effectively and easily.

Fiona developed the OPC intervention as part of her PhD thesis. A Christchurch-based lecturer of post-graduate rehabilitation papers for the University of Otago Wellington campus, Fiona provides a mix of online and face-to-face learning. She also holds an adjunct appointment with the University of Ottawa, Canada, and is a member of the NZAOT Permanent Scientific Programme Committee. She is the first graduate of the Otago Polytechnic Occupational Therapy School to have been awarded a PhD, completed in early 2011. Fiona combines her academic commitments and achievements with parenting an eleven-month baby, with another on the way.

How occupational therapists use OPC
Parents are guided by the therapist to identify specific aspects of their children’s behaviour or performance of tasks that they want to improve. Therapists use questioning techniques and reflection cues to steer parents to identify solutions that will best suit the needs and abilities of their children. Examples of solutions parents identify might include changing the arrangement of seating during meal times, or altering the sequence of tasks in the before-school routine. The therapist guides parents to describe how they would like the execution of an identified task to take place.

“This immediately brings a different emotional tone to the situation,” says Fiona. “Parents usually describe a calmer, less stressful situation.”

Fiona emphasises that encouragement is often the key to parents persisting with the intervention in the early stages. The therapist encourages parents by complimenting their actions and insights, or by relating inspiring examples of other families’ successes in similar situations.

OPC ticks the boxes for occupational therapists with its focus on improving everyday life for families by helping them to identify goals, as well as tools and strategies. A child’s ability to perform a daily task is taken into consideration, as well as their motivation to undertake a task, how much they know about how to do it and their ability to complete it.

Why did Fiona develop OPC?
“I came to increasingly appreciate the wisdom, insights and practical knowledge of parents in solving their children’s problems, if they are asked the right questions and provided with support, information and a structure for problem-solving,” says Fiona. “Parents’ level of education and thinking skills doesn’t limit their ability to support their children to be successful, if you ask the right questions. The goals may seem simple, but to quote one parent, ‘When you describe practical goals you have to come up with practical solutions’.”

Follow-up feedback from parents
“One mother who trialled OPC during my research said that the intervention extended strategies she was already using, which is great, as it reinforces her expertise,” says Fiona. “Parents also commented that they learned to trust their instincts or to manage their own emotional state before trying to help their child.”

How will the award funding be used?
Fiona plans to put the award funding towards the cost of employing clinicians for upcoming OPC research projects. These include a series of complex case studies investigating the use of OPC with children and parents with diverse impairments such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Dyspraxia, Cerebral Palsy and in different environments that include various family compositions, and high and low income families. These studies will also evaluate how effective OPC is for other therapists to incorporate into their practices.

Former winners go on to further achievements
“This award was established to enable therapists identified as leaders in their fields to take up opportunities for additional learning,” says sponsor Kirsten Thomforde, Director of Medical Staffing International. “The further achievements of two of our past winners demonstrate how important it is to enable such opportunities.”

Grace O’Sullivan, 2005 winner, was invited to deliver the Frances Rutherford lecture at the 2010 NZAOT Conference. Grace was also selected as the New Zealander of the Year for Medicine by North & South magazine in 2010. Her work reflects her passionate commitment to enhancing the wellbeing of people with dementia.

Kim Henneker, 2008 award winner, developed the Knowing the People Planning (KPP) audit tool and process, which has been used by Hawke’s Bay DHB Mental Health Services at six-monthly intervals to measure improvements to consumer outcomes since 2003. This work has been acknowledged with the Hawke’s Bay DHB Mental Health Services’ selection as a finalist in the 2011 Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Service Achievement Awards Specialist Service or Part of a Larger Service category.

For more information on the Medical Staffing International/NZAOT Occupational Therapy Achievement Awards >

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