Ms Amanda Schiller1, Fiona Lee
1Rural Support Service, Adelaide, Australia
Abstract:
Toilet training is a significant milestone in childhood. It can cause concern and frustration for parents of any child, but it is known that children with additional developmental issues often require more specific strategies to support toilet training. It was identified that the approach to supporting toileting was varied across the regional local health networks. As a means of addressing this challenge, the Rural Support Service in collaboration with the Child Health and Development senior occupational therapists developed a toileting pathway and resources to support clinicians, with goals including:
– That the child and family was responded to in a timely manner
– That the child and family were seen for an appropriate duration of intervention
– That the service that was provided was appropriate for the child’s age/developmental stage/presenting issue and level of parental commitment
– That there was consideration to when onward referrals should occur to other professionals when the child’s needs were outside the scope of Occupational Therapy.
This initiative was trialled across several sites in regional South Australia. Utilising the Institute of Medicine’s health care quality framework, the impact of this initiative was evaluated. Outcomes will be discussed including impacts on waiting time, clinician feedback and changes in service delivery.