The pandemic forced us to rethink our services…

The pandemic forced us to rethink our services and offerings. We had no choice but to reinvent ourselves if we wanted to provide continued support, especially to more vulnerable families. Thanks to this, many speech-language pathologists quickly trained to offer teletherapy, and as a result, many of us also changed our approach because we were limited by our resources. Consequently, a more supportive approach was adopted, because we knew that for many of our patients, we couldn't intervene directly. I'm thinking of toddlers, those with attention difficulties, or those too easily distracted by screens.

But then why go back to the old way of doing things? I made a video about it.

The pandemic brought us a lot of stress, but also a lot of new learning, and even some good things. We were able to adapt, each in our own way. I am nonetheless grateful for this time, which allowed me to pivot my services and start projects that had always been put on hold because I was simply too overwhelmed to think about creating tools, organizing content for my blog, social media, video clips, training courses… Wow, I had a grand vision!

One of the first free tools I shared at that time was actually related to parental support. It's a SOAP-format, evolving note template for a coaching session. I wanted to share this resource with you, which I've now refined and which is perfectly aligned with the current topic: parental partnership. In this tool, you'll find a version with suggestions for what could be included in your evolving note, and a blank version for your use.

This format was designed for parent support sessions. The first version gives you an idea of ​​how to structure your session and what to include where. Parent support isn't simply about modeling an approach for parents or giving them exercises; it's a collaborative approach that takes into account the parents' expertise and their lived experience of the disorder on a daily basis, in conjunction with the healthcare professional's clinical expertise.

In this approach, there is a shared decision-making process to adapt to lifestyle habits, which makes it:

• Caregiver
• Collaborative
• Reciprocal

The facilitator and the parent engage in a dynamic and reciprocal process to establish goals and solutions together, with the aim of:

• Facilitating the achievement of objectives
• Developing self-directed learning for caregivers or the patient
• Developing parental personal growth
• to have shorter follow-ups

If you like this resource but aren't sure where to start to use it and transition towards a partnership with caregivers rather than direct intervention, Lorianne Lacerte and I would like to help you. I know that a new approach to care can be difficult to adopt, and even more difficult to implement on a daily basis—we've been there. A more traditional approach is what we're used to, we won't deny it. Some might even say that we know what to do with patients and how, but the reality is that this approach isn't the best way to help families. If you'd like to implement this approach, I invite you to read all the details of our workshop. →As a team! Professionals in parental support← .