Family Centred Practise

Whilst on my paediatric placement I came to learn the importance of the term 'family centered practise'. The physiotherapy department was situated at the school which the patient/child was currently attending. This yound boy was autistic, he was treated at the school and came to school every morning on the school bus. Therefore his mother did not come in regularly.

One morning a frantic call was made to the physio department and this young boy's mother was on the phone and was in a right state. Her son had started limping and she was terrified that she would be reported to child services as she believed that people would think that she had been abusing her child. Myself and the physiotherapist went to visit the mother at her home and managed to clam her down, assuring her that noone believed that she was abusing her son. We assessed her son and could not find any reason for his limping, and his limping was very inconsistent, we were able to get him walking normally after a few minuits.

The reason that the mother had worked herself up into such a state over this seemingly insignificant episode was that she was having to care for her son on her own. Her husband was working night shifts and would therefore be asleep in the days whilst she was caring for her son. Her son is only able to go to school 3/5 days due to medical reasons, her family lived a couple of hours away and the family were in a tight financial situation. As a result this poor woman had no time to herself, was unable to afford a carer or any respite for her son so that she could have some down time. We were able to find one of the teaching assistants at the school who offered to take her son for a couple of hours a week and we contacted a psychologist who she could talk to who would be able to place her in a better position to recieve respite.

From this I realised the value of looking at the whole family in a big picture and not just the patient/child that you are seeing. This mum had reached a breaking point and this was obviously beginning to effect her son, if we had been seeing her more often then this might not have happened.