Premium
Development and preliminary evaluation of an early childhood community occupational therapy programme
Author(s) -
Walker Rosemary,
Cusick Anne
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
australian occupational therapy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1440-1630
pISSN - 0045-0766
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1630.1996.tb01831.x
Subject(s) - occupational therapy , quality (philosophy) , phase (matter) , medical education , strengths and weaknesses , nursing , service (business) , monitoring and evaluation , psychology , medicine , business , political science , physical therapy , marketing , social psychology , philosophy , chemistry , organic chemistry , epistemology , law
Community‐based occupational therapy must be efficient, effective and of high quality. An innovative community health strategy was developed and implemented to meet the needs of early childhood agencies in the Macarthur community for a more accessible occupational therapy service for preschool children. This paper first describes the needs assessment that underpinned programme development. It then describes the planning and implementation phases of the programme. Finally, the paper outlines the preliminary phase of programme evaluation. This involved a survey of stakeholders to determine their views of the programme and the aspects of the programme that they felt should be included in a later evaluation phase. Stakeholders recommended evaluation of quality and design issues, strengths and weaknesses of programme components, stated aims, use of the programme, and client satisfaction. This programme development and evaluation experience supports the need for systematic, multi‐method planning and evaluation strategies in community occupational therapy programmes to ensure effective high quality services.