Abstract
Background: Family-centred care is an extension of patient-centred care and considered the gold standard in modern healthcare. Despite increasing interest in the application of family-centred care to adult audiological rehabilitation, its implementation varies widely, with audiological rehabilitation typically involves the fitting of hearing aids, with less of a focus on the needs of the entire family unit. This study measured the impact of a family-centred care intervention program for audiologists, aimed at increasing family member involvement in audiological rehabilitation.
Methodology. A mixed methodology design was utilised for this single sample pre-post discovery oriented project. A total of 16 clinicians participated in a two-part intervention outlining the implementation of family-centred practices, including use of the Goal Sharing for Partners – Mini (GPS-Mini) to capture both client and family goals for rehabilitation. Following the audiologist-targeted intervention sessions, 60 hearing care clients and 65 family members were recruited to participate in this study, with a sample of appointments being videotaped to directly observe audiologists’ use of family-centred practices. In addition, both clients and family members participated in qualitative individual semi-structured interviews about their perceptions of the family-centred approach to audiological rehabilitation.
Results: Observational analysis of the family-centred audiological appointments revealed that, in general, clients and family members were physically positioned equally in the clinical rooms, which facilitated the implementation of family-centred practices. Family members were engaged in the appointments, able to contribute information to the case history and discussion of communication difficulties, which in some cases resulted in the development of both client and family goals. Throughout the appointments, family members were observed to spontaneously contribute to the discussion, however these discussions often focused more on the client with hearing loss rather than on the needs of the family unit. When interviewed, both clients and family members reported that they valued the engagement of family members in the rehabilitation process. Implications for the provision of family-centred adult audiological rehabilitation will be discussed, including strategies to engage clients and families in goal setting and rehabilitation processes.
Conclusions: Following an audiologist-targeted intervention to increase family-centred care practices, clinicians engaged in family-centred care behaviours during audiological rehabilitation which were positively perceived by clients and families. The GPS-Mini provided a framework for audiologists to consider the needs of both clients and family members. However, full implementation of family-centred care remained variable.