Service providers’ adaptations to facilitate family-centered care for children with cerebral palsy: a qualitative study

Family-centered care (FCC) establishes the standard for service provision for children with cerebral palsy (CP) through several integrative measures. However, to achieve true family-centeredness, long-term services must remain flexible and responsive to evolving situations and contexts throughout childhood, requiring continuous adaptations by service providers. Despite this need, research examining how practitioners adapt their practices to deliver effective services for children and their families is limited. Therefore, this study aims to explore the adaptations employed by service providers to facilitate family-centered care for children with cerebral palsy. Data were collected through focus groups with service providers and observations of multidisciplinary coordination meetings. Service providers consistently adapted their practices to address the care needs of children with CP and their families. These adaptations were considered essential due to the wide variation in clinical outcomes associated with CP, the presence of comorbidities and additional diagnoses, and the diverse and evolving needs of families. Through these adaptations, service providers supported families by creating trusting relationships, ensuring early interventions, delivering individualized care, and negotiating differing perspectives. They also organized care by promoting collaboration among stakeholders and managing information effectively. By adapting their practices to emerging situations and needs, service providers demonstrated situational awareness and implemented flexible approaches to FCC aligned with families’ evolving requirements. These adaptations helped compensate for systemic shortcomings, ensuring coordinated and integrated care consistent with a family-centered approach.