Early intervention in Portugal: study of professionals’ perceptions

Early intervention (EI) has been characterized by considerable advances in its domain, which has had great repercussions in the implementation of the family-centered approach. These changes have had implications in the practices and in the adoption and learning of new values that should be implemented in EI. This study evaluates the professional perspectives regarding familycentered practices in EI programs in Portugal. The results highlight the importance of effective collaboration and coordination between health, education, and social services and the importance of providing child and family support in a natural context. These results reinforce the need to invest in professional training to improve the quality of services offered to families in EI.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) no âmbito do projecto PEst-OE/CED/UI1661/2014 do CIEd

Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC) applied to measure parent's perception of the habilitation process in Sweden.

Aim To evaluate the instrument Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC) in a Swedish context. Methods The MPOC consists of 56 questions in the five scales: enabling and partnership; providing general information; providing specific information about the child; co-ordinated and comprehensive care; and respectful and supportive care. The questionnaire was translated into Swedish and distributed to 850 families, served by four habilitation centres. After two reminders, a response rate of 74.9% was obtained, and about 60% of the questionnaires qualified for further statistical analysis. Reliability, calculated as Cronbach's alpha, was high for four of the five scales and acceptable for the fifth (scale no. 3). Results Significant differences were shown between centres as well as between age groups. These differences were reasonable as judged through background knowledge, indicating that the instrument was able to discriminate between actual differences in services. Commenting on the practical use of the questionaire, staff, as well as responding parents, found the questionnaire rather long and some parents reported difficulties in giving answers as specific as the questionnaire asked them to. Conclusion The MPOC shows sufficient sensitivity to be used as an evaluation tool for services at a centre or program level, and can be recommended for research and practical use