Grant: Project Grant

The field of childhood disability has undergone profound development and change in the past 15-20 years. We have moved well beyond a singular focus on impairments, and searching for the best therapies and treatments to 'fix' the problems. We now recognize what might be obvious to many people (but was obscured by our preoccupation with biomedicine) - that developmental challenges in children require a focus on child-in-family-in-community; that these conditions affect child and family development; that these conditions require a lifecourse perspective beyond the childhood years; that we need to look at, focus on and celebrate strengths and not just deficits; and that the World Health Organization's framework for health (the International Classification of Functioning, Health and Disability - aka the ICF - provides a rich opportunity to bring these ideas together in a coherent and exciting way. We are currently actively involved in a collaborative Canada/Australia CIHR-funded study with families, called ENVISAGE, in which ideas built on the concepts listed above are being provided to groups of 5-7 parents at a time in five weekly virtual workshops. In the course of creating ENVISAGE, and in the workshops with parents delivered to date, a strong and consistent message has been: 'These ideas must be provided to service providers (SPs) as well!' ENVISAGE-SP is being developed collaboratively with parents and service providers, and will be delivered to and evaluated systematically with service providers across Canada and Australia. This second study in the ENVISAGE research program is an essential next step to bring modern thinking, intervention activities and clinical tools to front-line specialists.