Continuity of Care During COVID-19 Lockdown: A Survey on Stakeholders' Experience With Telerehabilitation

Abstract

Objective: To explore professionals', adult patients', and children's caregivers' perception and satisfaction with telerehabilitation during COVID-19 lockdown.Design: An observational transversal study on a web-based survey was conducted in order to explore participants' perception and satisfaction of telerehabilitation during COVID-19 lockdown.Setting: The study was conducted at our Outpatient Neurorehabilitation Service.Subjects: All rehabilitation professionals, adult patients, and children's caregivers who accepted telerehabilitation were recruited.Interventions: Participants had to respond to the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 and to a purpose-built questionnaire on their perception and satisfaction of the service provided.Main Measures: Data were analyzed by qualitative statistics and logistic regression models.Results: All 144 caregivers, 25 adult patients, and 50 professionals reported a medium-high level of perception and a high level of satisfaction. Results showed a correlation among caregivers of children aged 0–3 and feeling overwhelmed with remote care (OR = 3.27), a low perception of telerehabilitation for enhancing goals (OR = 6.51), and a high perception of feeling helped in organizing daily activity (OR = 2.96). For caregivers of children aged over 6 years, changes in the therapy plan were related to a low perception of feeling in line with the in-person therapy (OR = 2.61 and OR = 9.61) and a low satisfaction (OR = 5.54 and OR = 4.97). Changes in therapy were related to concern (OR = 4.20). Caregivers under 40 and professionals showed a high probability to perceive telerehabilitation as supportive (OR = 2.27 and OR = 5.68). Level of experience with remote media was shown to influence perception and satisfaction.Interpretation: Telerehabilitation can be a useful practice both during a health emergency and in addition to in-presence therapy.

Skype Supervised, Individualized, Home-Based Rehabilitation Programs for Individuals With Rett Syndrome and Their Families – Parental Satisfaction and Point of View

“…Moreover, the results correlate with previous findings ( Lotan et al, 2021 ), where parents were delighted with the program’s adaptability to the person with RTT and her daily routines. Levels of total satisfaction expressed by parents within the present project are coherent with previous reports available in the literature for other populations with disabilities ( Assenza et al, 2020 ; Tanner et al, 2020 ; Caprì et al, 2021 ).…”

“…These findings suggest that both parents’ and children’s age could affect the satisfaction with telerehabilitation services. Furthermore, these authors ( Assenza et al, 2020 ), as well as others ( Utidjian and Abramson, 2016 ; Brophy, 2017 ; Tanner et al, 2020 ), reported that the level of experience in technology use could be a significant barrier to telerehabilitation, affecting the client’s satisfaction. Due to the scarcity of existing knowledge on variables affecting parental satisfaction with telerehabilitation services for children with disabilities, several articles reported a high level of parents’ satisfaction whose children received remote therapy intervention ( Hinton et al, 2017 ; Assenza et al, 2020 ; Camden et al, 2020 ; Sanders et al, 2020 ; Tanner et al, 2020 ; Caprì et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Furthermore, these authors ( Assenza et al, 2020 ), as well as others ( Utidjian and Abramson, 2016 ; Brophy, 2017 ; Tanner et al, 2020 ), reported that the level of experience in technology use could be a significant barrier to telerehabilitation, affecting the client’s satisfaction. Due to the scarcity of existing knowledge on variables affecting parental satisfaction with telerehabilitation services for children with disabilities, several articles reported a high level of parents’ satisfaction whose children received remote therapy intervention ( Hinton et al, 2017 ; Assenza et al, 2020 ; Camden et al, 2020 ; Sanders et al, 2020 ; Tanner et al, 2020 ; Caprì et al, 2021 ). Although the literature in this field is growing, parental satisfaction with physical telerehabilitation services with children with severe developmental disabilities was only rarely explored and, to the authors’ knowledge, only one article explored this variable in parents of children with RTT with an exclusive focus on the quantitative point of view ( Romano et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Within the last years, a growing body of literature explored parental satisfaction levels with telerehabilitation services for children with disabilities. Assenza et al (2020) analyzed the answer of 144 caregivers of children with and different disabilities finding a medium-high range of satisfaction with the intervention. Their results suggested that young children’s parents (age 0–3years) felt overwhelmed with remote care and referred a low perception of the capability of telerehabilitation in enhancing their children’s goals.…”

COVID-19 and Aphasia

“…The heterogeneity nature of managing aphasia online might have also made it a difficult process for PWA, their carers, and clinicians to adjust [40]. Nevertheless, telepractice has been utilized as an effective alternative to in-person aphasia therapy and some recent reports have suggested that it is a viable method of service delivery for PWA during this unprecedented crisis, with endorsement of a high level of satisfaction from rehabilitation professionals and adult patients [41,42].…”