Occupational performance coaching in Hong Kong
Occupational Performance Coaching Logo
RTRU Senior Lecturer, Dr Fiona Graham, work on Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC; a parent-coaching intervention) has lead to a new collaborative research partnership with clinical researchers in Hong Kong. Recently this group was awarded a grant by the Research Fund Secretariat from Food and Health Bureau, under the Health Care Promotion Scheme in Hong Kong in order to study “A parent-coaching intervention to promote community participation of young children with developmental disability.” This project will be lead by Dr Chi-Wen (Will) Chien with input from Dr Graham and co-investigators Dr Yuen-yi (Cynthia) Lai and Dr Chung-Ying Lin.
Participation in community activities is important for children to learn skills, make friends, and have fun. Children with a disability and their families, however, are reported to participate less in the activities in their communities. This project will examine the cultural appropriateness of OPC when used in Hong Kong and its effectiveness to enable community participation of young children with developmental disability. The effect of OPC on child well-being will also be examined as an important mediator of children’s participation. A randomised control trial (aim to recruit over 75 children) will be conducted in Hong Kong. Parents in the experimental group will receive OPC. Parents in the control group will receive information about community resources by phone. Findings will provide important information about the effectiveness and cultural appropriateness of OPC for Hong Kong citizens and will inform future service design for children and families in Hong Kong.
Testing the fidelity of occupational performance coaching
RTRU Senior Lecturer Dr Fi Graham is currently leading a project with colleagues Shruti Gadhari & Maryjane Mulcahey from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia to examine how well paediatric rehabilitation therapists adhere to a coaching protocol in everyday practice. This project follows on from Dr Graham’s earlier research into Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC), a goal directed intervention for working with caregivers of people with disabilities. Research has shown that OPC can be effective in helping caregivers to achieve their goals but it’s not clear if trained therapists can or do actually apply the coaching in the way it was intended. Knowing how well and how much an intervention is being applied (generally referred to as intervention fidelity) is really important for us to make sense of research findings, and as a check in our own practice if we are to achieve the same level change reported in research. In this study, therapists are rating their use of coaching on a 20-item checklist after they think they’ve used coaching. They can also ask a peer who has observed their coaching to rate them. In this way, the checklist is intended to guide therapists to self-correct their use of coaching, as well as measure how much coaching was used. Findings from this study will be shared in 2018 through publications, conferences and coaching workshops, as well as featuring in a manual for OPC.
