698 - Feasibility of a co-designed community intervention for families of children with developmental diagnoses

Poster Number: 698
Publication Number: 698.308

Puneet Parmar, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Deirdre Kelly-Adams, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Shazeen Suleman, University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada; Chioma Nwebube, MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Unity Health Toronto, Grimsby, ON, Canada

Background: COVID-19 created considerable barriers to care for families of children with developmental disability (FCDD), particularly those who are socially or economically marginalized, such as increased caregiver stress, difficulty navigating services and worsened social isolation (Filler et al., 2022). A community-based intervention was co-created with community partners and families to improve social support, caregiver empowerment and access to services (Figure 1), consisting of a ‘toolkit’ of resources with an accompanying workshop for caregivers and community service providers (CSPs), and a chat group for caregivers.

Objective: This study explored the feasibility of the co-designed intervention, examining the acceptability, implementation, and demand.

Design/Methods: This was a mixed-methods feasibility study incorporating quantitative and qualitative evaluation components, and received Research Ethics Board approval (SMH 20-127).  Demand and implementation were assessed using by measuring participant attendance in the workshops. Acceptability was assessed using post-workshop questionnaires to measure satisfaction and knowledge uptake, and further explored in semi-structured interviews, which were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Any caregiver and CSPs who participated in any arm of the intervention were invited to participate.

Results: Workshops were held 6 times (4 caregiver workshops, 2 staff workshops) in two community partner sites. A total of 55 participants (32 caregivers, 23 staff) participated. After receiving the toolkit and attending the workshop, both caregivers and CSPs reported that they felt more comfortable with navigating services, which was higher in CSPs (4.58/5, p< 0.005). 100% of participants wanted additional iterations of the workshops with the toolkit. In the IDIs, both CSP and caregivers reported that the toolkit was comprehensive and easy-to-use. Many caregivers reported using the toolkit immediately after the workshops to connect to new services. Among both CSP and caregivers, it was found that the group chat was infrequently used but had potential to be a helpful tool to share additional resources and discuss specific topics.

Conclusion(s): This community-based, co-created intervention was implemented successfully, with high acceptability and demand. Both CSPs and caregivers found the toolkit to be useful and have used it to successfully access services, while the group chat was less used. Our study demonstrates the critical importance of working alongside community to co-create interventions to best serve the specific community needs.
Peer Support Intervention Impact Model (2).jpeg