Empowering Parents through Occupational Therapy and Primary Care Partnerships: A Feasibility Study

Background: Partnerships between occupational therapists and primary care providers may increase parents' accessibility to needed information to support their children’s development and promote occupational engagement. The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility and potential impact of occupational therapy-led parent education sessions in pediatric primary care. Method: We designed a mixed methods feasibility study with two individualized parent education sessions within 2 weeks. The study took place at a pediatric primary care practice. Convenience sampling was used to recruit nine parents who met these criteria: parent/caregiver of a child 3 years of age or under, 18 years of age or older, and primary caregiving responsibilities of the child at least 2 days a week. The intervention was two 1-hr individualized parent education sessions over 2 weeks to address developmental milestones and parent-identified concerns. The authors generated pre and post surveys to assess parents’ perceived knowledge of and confidence in developmental milestones. Results: Parents reported an aggregate increase in both knowledge (40%) and confidence (46%) for promoting developmental milestones in their children after just two tailored educational sessions. Parents and the primary care provider expressed satisfaction with the education and collaborative partnership with the occupational therapist. Conclusion: Partnerships between occupational therapists and primary care providers may increase parents’ knowledge and confidence in supporting their children’s development and occupational engagement. Considerations for establishing these partnerships and future programming include access to resources, marketing, scheduling, and reimbursement. Summary: This study explored a collaboration between an occupational therapist and a primary care provider to increase parents’ access to educational information to support their children’s development. The findings suggest these partnerships may be a feasible way to increase parents’ knowledge and confidence in promoting developmental milestones in their children. Both parents and the practice owner were pleased with the education provided and expressed interest in continuing the collaboration. This study also provides considerations for occupational therapists looking to establish similar partnerships, including the necessary resources, advertising, scheduling, and payment for services.