Family‐centred early intervention: Comparing practitioners' actual and desired practices

Abstract

Background In Spain, as in other countries, there has been a deep and intense process of change towards the adoption and use of family‐centred practices (FCPs) on early intervention (EI). Despite that several international organizations have recommended FCPs be embedded in EI services, researchers on this field have highlighted a recommendation–implementation gap, as well as the need to point investigation on practitioners and intervention variables involved. Consequently, our goals were to describe and compare the practitioners' appraisals on actual and desired practices in Spain and to explore the relationships between practitioners and intervention characteristics and the use of recommended practices. Methods A survey including practitioner and intervention characteristics measures was used to obtain data needed. The actual and desired practices were explored through the Family Orientation of Community and Agency Services Scale. The participants were 119 EI Spanish practitioners whose programmes were in the first stages of different FCP implementation projects. Results Practitioners reported actual practices to be less family centred than they would like, moderately in line with FCP. They reported desired practices as quite close to recommended practices. Intervention characteristics were related to actual practices, whereas practitioner characteristics were not. Conclusions The results suggest that the recommendation–implementation gap still exists in our context, as well as in other countries. Intervention characteristics seem to be one of the key elements significantly influencing actual practices, though additional research is needed. A comprehensive framework for implementation is needed to bridge the gap between recommendation practices and the use of these practices.

Evidence-Based Implementation of the Family-Centered Model and the Use of Tele-Intervention in Early Childhood Services: A Systematic Review

“…Although there is a desire to generalize the family-centered model in current practices [ 22 ], different barriers are described that are independent of the practitioners, such as lack of time, resources, training, or aspects related to the organization and structure of the system [ 21 , 60 ].…”

“…It also takes into account usability, effectiveness, competence and trust, factors that are relevant to what the authors call social validity. Other studies such as those by McCarthy et al, Popova et al, García-Ventura et al, du Plessis et al, Rose et al and Vilaseca et al [ 20 , 21 , 52 , 58 , 60 , 66 ] assess factors that have to do with the technical staff who carry out the intervention, seeking their professional validation.…”

“…Likewise, although there is a preference towards the family-centered model, in practice [ 60 ], there are barriers or impediments that make its implementation difficult [ 60 , 62 , 70 ]. In the case of rural areas or developing countries, the population faces unique challenges [ 85 ] where tele-intervention seems to promote solutions in terms of providing opportunities [ 52 , 67 , 69 ].…”

“I was always struggling”: Caregivers' experiences of transitioning a child from oral to long‐term non‐oral feeding at an out‐patient hospital clinic in South Africa

“…Family‐centred interventions are widely considered as best practice in the field of early childhood intervention (Garcia‐Ventura et al, 2021). Family‐centred intervention is an asset‐based approach which is empowering and responsive to family needs, and the diverse influence of contextual and cultural variables.…”

Psychometric Evaluation of the Spanish Families Importance in Nursing Care: Nurses’ Attitudes Scale Through Classical Test Theory and Rasch Analysis

“…Similar to other countries, in Spain, there has been a growing interest in adopting and using a more family-oriented care approach in health care settings. Different studies in the Spanish context report that health care practitioners are changing their practices to involve families in care and decision-making process (Alfaro-Díaz, Esandi et al, 2022; García-Ventura et al, 2021). However, still some difficulties to fully implement family centered care exist, such as the lack of supportive attitudes of nurses toward families’ involvement in nursing care (Alfaro-Díaz, Esandi et al, 2022; Duhamel, 2017; Svavarsdottir et al, 2015).…”