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Factors affecting the involvement of day centre care staff in the delivery of physiotherapy to adults with intellectual disabilities: an exploratory study in one London borough
- Authors:
- MIDDLETON M. J., KITCHEN S. S.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 21(3), May 2008, pp.227-235.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Physiotherapists for adults with intellectual disabilities often work in day centres, relying on care staff to support programmes. This study investigates factors affecting physiotherapy delivery in 4 day centres in one London borough. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with day centre care staff, managers and physiotherapists. Service users’ needs were reported not to be met at three of the four centres. Barriers included low staffing levels, high absences and use of agency staff. Relevant variables included level of physiotherapist attendance, management priorities for care staff time, care staff confidence and whether a consistent team support delivery. Discrepancies emerged between staff and physiotherapists’ views on training needs. Physiotherapy delivered in day centres is an important part of a complex care package. It requires effective multiagency working to meet the known – and potentially unidentified – needs of individuals and to ensure that care staff are adequately supported.
Implementation of systematic instruction to increase client engagement in a day habilitation program
- Authors:
- CRITES Steven A., HOWARD Barbara H.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 36(1), March 2011, pp.2-10.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Individuals with severe intellectual disability often attend day habilitation programmes, primarily staffed by paraprofessionals. This article describes a staff training project designed to increase client engagement in a habilitation centre that served adults with intellectual and physical disabilities in the United States. The project had 3 phases: developing curriculum guidelines for staff in how to mentor the development of new skills and personal competencies in clients, conducting staff training for paraprofessional staff on the curriculum, and implementation of systematic instruction during a clinical experience. For the 3rd phase, the day activity centre hosted a five-week on-site summer course in partnership with a local university. The graduate level course on diagnostic and prescriptive training for individuals with moderate and severe disability was taught in the morning, and then immediately implemented in the day habilitation centre. Client engagement for the randomly selected group of 8 clients was measured at the beginning of the five-week period, and again at the end. The results showed increased engagement of clients in activities across all of the programmes in the study.