Exploring Family-Centered Care from the Perspectives of Home-Health Physical Therapists

Background and Purpose: Older adults often need caregivers to help them age in place successfully while maximizing their quality of life. These caregivers have the highest rates of burnout, injury, and turnover. Family-centered care (FCC) involves collaboration between the healthcare practitioner and the patient, family members, and caregivers. There is a paucity of evidence on how FCC is applied to older adults and their caregivers. The purpose of this general qualitative study was to explore how a group of home health physical therapists (HHPTS) deliver FCC to care-dependent older adults. Methods: This general qualitative study used individual, semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of 14 HHPTs working for a variety of home health agencies in San Diego County. The interview responses were hand transcribed, hand coded, thematically analyzed, and conceptualized in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health model (ICF model). The coding table and interview guide were modified based on reviews by experts in home health physical therapy. A proprietary coding software program called NVivo was used to triangulate the results. Results: The 3 main themes that emerged were: 1) "FCC is Complex"; 2) "FCC Impacts Older Adults' Health Factors"; and 3) FCC is Impacted by Contextual Factors". Eleven subthemes also emerged. Discussion: The themes and subthemes were conceptualized within the ICF Model. The first theme demonstrated that the HHPTs had a variety of understandings of training on, and applications with, FCC. The HHTP was conceptualized as an environmental factor that could impact the patient's health based on their knowledge and skills with FCC. The second theme demonstrated that FCC was utilized to address every ICF health factor by the HHPTs. This theme was conceptualized around the entire ICF Model. Neurological conditions and motivated families were seen as large factors in performing FCC. The third theme demonstrated that a wide variety of contextual factors impacted the HHPTs ability, time, and resources to perform FCC. This was conceptualized in ICF Model as personal and environmental factors that could facilitate or inhibit ("+/-") FCC approaches by the HHPTs. Conclusions: This study closed some of the gaps in the literature on how FCC is delivered to older adult clients, their caregivers, and their family members. This knowledge may help to foster changes in FCC approaches and research. Changes like these could lead to improved health outcomes for older adults through reduced hospital readmissions and improved caregiver satisfaction with care as seen in pediatrics.