Investigation of family-centered features in physiotherapy and rehabilitation servicesfor children with cerebral palsy and factors affecting parent perceptions

Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) attend special education and rehabilitation centers to receive physiotherapy and rehabilitation (PT) services, and it is very important for parents to be informed about the services offered in these centers. Our aim in the study was to examine which factors affect family-centered characteristics and parental perceptions in the PT services received by children with CP. For this purpose, 100 children diagnosed with CP between the ages of 2-18 and their parents were included in the study. The Measure of Processes Care (MPOC) survey was used to assess parents' perceptions of the family-centered features of (PT) services. These perceptions were examined to determine whether they vary depending on the child's age, functional level, parents' educational status, the impact of their disabled children, and health-related quality of life. The Family Impact Scale was used to measure parents' level of influence from their disabled children, and the Nottingham Health Profile survey was used to evaluate their health-related quality of life. The average age of the children is 11.58±4.37, and the average age of the parents is 43.40±8.33. In our study, it was revealed that the enabling and partnership dimension had the highest mean score, while the providing specific information about the child sub-dimension had the lowest mean score. While it was found that parents' perceptions differed in various sub-dimensions, it was observed that the age and functional level of the child with CP, the education level of the parent, the level of impact from their disabled child and health-related quality of life did not significantly affect these scores (p>0.05). The results of the study reveal that parents' general perception of the family-centeredness of services is positive, but more efforts need to be made to increase the sharing of general and specific information about the child with families. We think that it is important for families to be evaluated more effectively by physiotherapists and to initiate family-based physiotherapy practices in our country.