ENVISAGE-service providers: creating opportunities to change how service providers think, talk about, and approach childhood disability through professional development. A qualitative study.

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore service providers' experiences with, and the impact of, ENVISAGE-Service Providers, a professional development program aiming to increase participants' knowledge of, attitudes towards, and skills to apply contemporary evidence-informed, family-centred approaches in childhood-onset disability. Participants in ENVISAGE-Service Providers were health professionals working with children with disability. Online semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 27 purposively selected consenting participants from Australia and Canada on program completion. A reflexive thematic analysis approach guided data analysis. A thematic metaphor of constructing family-centred approaches described the program's impact. Four Themes described how [1] participants come with their own foundations for family-centred service (FCS) [2]; ENVISAGE-SP provides scaffolding for FCS, describing the programs' active ingredients [3], participants build what they need to support FCS, and [4] ENVISAGE-SP can support building a family-centred ecosystem. Constructions included connections between ways of thinking and doing; bridges between providers and families; and plans for future construction as ENVISAGE ideas translate into practice. Participants described the program's active ingredients as providing the scaffold that supported them to build on their existing foundations in FCS in ways that enhanced their confidence and ability to translate family-centred principles in practice.