Providing Therapeutic Materials to Families with Children Participating in Telehealth Services: Caregiver and Therapist Perception of Impact on Telehealth Services

Abstract

Telehealth has been a lesser-known service delivery option for occupational therapy for many years. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has now become mainstream and had even been utilized as a complete replacement for in-person treatment at certain points during the pandemic. The telehealth sessions at the capstone site, a private Pediatric therapy clinic, have been found to be limited by what materials the family has in their home. At the clinic, every therapeutic item one could think of is available for use, but when stuck at home, families must use what they have. This capstone project sought to provide care packages with therapeutic materials to families receiving telehealth to determine if both their own and their therapist’s perception of telehealth changed. A non-standardized survey was utilized for data collection, and slight improvements had been found for the caregiver perception of telehealth, with little change in the therapist perception. Further exploration of results and implications on OT and telehealth are discussed as well.