[Sarah Wilkins]

#85485

In my place of work, we use a mix of formal and informal assessments to gain the information we require in order to provide optimal management and intervention (in my case, specifically speech, language and feeding therapy). We experience limitations with more standardised assessments as almost all available assessment tools have not been standardised on the setting in (rural) and population (Xhosa people whose first language and language of learning is isiXhosa). We therefore have to adapt tools and assessments to get the information we require to formulate optimal management plans. Taking these factors into consideration, the following are principles we consider when attempting to conduct a holistic assessment:

1) A transdisciplinary, family-centered approach (i.e. one therapist will build rapport with and work directly with the child eliciting various requirement according to assessments while the remainder of the team observes the child and conducts the interview with the family members present)
2)Routine-based (i.e. not only what a child and their family’s typical day look like, but also how do they perform certain routine-based activities, for example, do you bath your child with cerebral palsy in a ‘waskom’ on the floor or with a cloth in sitting on a bench)
3) Social utility (i.e. assessment and intervention occur as an interactive process with one informing the other)

I have not heard or come across any of the assessment tools highlighted in this module before and I am looking forward to implementing into part of our paediatric palliative care practice here. We aim to merge the utilisation of these tools alongside our assessment principles.

[Tracy]

#85501

Thanks for sharing your principles on how you conduct holistic assessments in your setting Sarah, and would understand the limitations you may have with standardised tools especially with language barriers. I do hope that implementing a few of the tools we use in palliative will be of benefit to both staff and your patients. In further courses we will also introduce other tools specific to that subject (issue/concern). In Justin Amery’s chapter – Assessment and management planning in his book “Children’s Palliative Care in Africa” (which is downloadable)he includes the PEPSI-COLA assessment framework which I do think encompasses the principles you mention above. The book can be downloaded at this link :
https://icpcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Childrens-Palliative-Care-in-Africa-Full-Text.pdf

[Sarah Wilkins]

#85854

Thank you Tracy. What a wonderful resource.

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