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Contemporary Approaches to Family-Centred Care in Practice: Evidence-Based Initiatives to Advance the Care of Young People with Acquired Brain Injury and Their Families
Acquired brain injury (ABI) is associated with a range of acute and long-term impacts for young people and their families. The philosophy of family-centred care has been embraced by paediatric rehabilitation services around the world. At its essence, family-centred care incorporates collaborative family-provider partnerships, effective communication, responsiveness to family needs, priorities, and choices, and interprofessional teamwork. Ongoing challenges in delivering family-centred care for children with ABI are reported by paediatric rehabilitation services. This pre-conference workshop will introduce contemporary approaches to family-centred care, with a particular focus on key areas of significant research advances, including understanding and meeting the needs of the entire family, supporting child and family mental health, and fostering hope in families following ABI. Presenters will draw upon contemporary frameworks for applying family-centred care, such as systems-based and context-specific rehabilitation approaches, the Life Course Health Development model, the International Classification of Functioning (ICF), F-words in childhood disability, and modern approaches to collaborative goal setting and partnering with children and families. International perspectives from Australia, New Zealand, France, and Canada on the practicalities of applying research findings into clinical practice will be shared. The value of lived experience and importance of service improvements informed by family and child perspectives will be a central theme of the session. The presenters will share practical examples of how they have used a range of participatory methodologies to better understand family needs and experiences, as well as to co-design and evaluate interventions in partnership with families. This pre-conference workshop will be a highly interactive session involving reflective small group discussions, and a panel discussion on innovative approaches to family-centred care. The panel members will consider the active role of clinicians and services in implementing family-centred care approaches that address the complex needs of children and families. Participants will have opportunities to reflect on how their learnings can be applied within their own clinical practice settings.