At Kids Matters Occupational Therapy, we work hard to ensure that we provide the best possible quality services for our clients. Part of this process, since 2021, has been the gradual integration of an evidence based practice approach into our processes and services.
Prior to 2021, Kids Matters Occupational Therapy relied on earlier research, the clinical experience and specialist expertise of our therapists, as well as client and caregiver experience, to inform our assessments and interventions.
Since 2021, Kids Matters Occupational Therapy have embarked on a quality assurance project, under the leadership of Dr Micah Perez (Senior Occupational Therapist) that aims to formally and comprehensively integrate evidence based practice into everything we do, and everything we offer our clients.
We believe that evidence based practice involves the following:
- Having the best available research evidence (from various disciplines, including but not limited to occupational therapy);
- Having the best available resources, including clinical experience and specialist expertise of our therapists;
- Considering the unique characteristics, culture, status, needs, values, preferences, and experiences of our clients and caregivers; and
- Considering the environment (e.g. social, cultural, physical, organisational, ecological).
Integrating an evidence based approach into our services makes us trailblazers in service quality and delivery within our industry. Inspired by the work of Dr Iona Novak and colleagues in 2019 (in which Dr Novak and Ingrid Honan published a systematic review of paediatric occupational therapy for children with disabilities), we are in the process of developing a Traffic Light System of categorising our assessments and interventions. The Traffic Light System will be based on the strength of the research evidence and clinical usefulness of all our assessments and interventions. This means that all our therapists will have a framework to consistently and confidently guide our decision making for service delivery, particularly for assessments and interventions. For our clients, this means that we will continue to fulfil our duty of care to you; whilst also ensuring that you can trust in, be confident about, be satisfied with, and know that you are receiving the best possible and cost-effective services at Kids Matters Occupational Therapy.