A therapy episode begins with an evaluation. At the evaluation, information is collected about your child's function, their ability to complete activities and their ability to participate in the activities that matter most to you and your child.
Your child's therapist will work together with you to identify current goals during a process called goal setting. You will identify barriers to successfully completing goals and identify the most appropriate therapy approach to achieve them.
Intervention
As a team, you, your child and your therapist will identify a plan that will help your child make progress toward identified goals. This will include choosing a focused therapy approach (therapy frequency, intensity, timing and type). Sometimes, goals are best achieved when your child comes to therapy several times a week. Sometimes, it is enough to be seen once a week or even once in awhile. In many cases, science and published research help us to know which “dose” of therapy will work the best. There are other important factors that help decide which therapy model to follow. These may include things such as a need for a home program, planned major medical intervention (i.e. surgery), your child’s medical complexity and their rate of development.
Outpatient therapy models of care
- Intensive therapy: 3+ therapy sessions per week
- Weekly therapy: 1 or 2 therapy sessions per week
- Transitional therapy: Every other week or one therapy session a month
- Consultative therapy: Episodic or as needed
- Elite schedule: Elite is available for families who cannot commit to regular appointments but are able to schedule a single visit or just a couple of appointments at a time
- Discharge with home program
Reflect and review: establishing next steps
At the end of the initial episode, the therapist will assess progress towards goals and discuss next steps. Options may include continuing the episode, reducing or increasing frequency, or taking a therapy holiday. A therapy holiday is a strategic break from formal therapy services for a period of time. A therapy holiday can last anywhere from a few weeks to many months, if it is felt it is in the child’s best interest. This is the time to work on home programs and focus on family and community integration.
If you and your therapist decide this is the right time to take a therapy holiday, you will be given clear instructions regarding how to start another episode of therapy. A new episode will start with a check-in visit with a therapist to discuss goal setting and prepare for another episode, if appropriate. Before you start your therapy holiday, your therapist will instruct scheduling staff to do one of the following:
- Wait for you to decide if/when therapy is needed
- Schedule a check-in appointment on a specified future date
- Call to remind you to schedule a check-in when your therapy holiday concludes
Therapy planning cycle
This cycle of intervention, reflection and review allows us to help assess your child's therapy needs throughout their lifespan to adulthood.