Do you have any advice regarding providing families with the hope for future, giving false hope?
Answer
That is such a great question, and such a hard answer. I dance around this daily. You don't want to be the one that is the dream killer, but you also don't want to give them false hope. I try to rely as much as I can on the evidence. I try to gather information, for example, on what a hemi hand looks like when they come in, and how far they're going to get based on time out. Gather information, do literature searches. There's good information on how much improvement is typical at a certain stage. You can at least provide that. It's a dance. If families ask me directly, I will always be honest. I will say I don't have future glasses, but based on my experience, this is what I think it's going to look like. This is what's possible. I also remind them that science is always evolving, too.
Patti Sharp, OTD, MS, OTR/L
Dr. Patti Sharp is an occupational therapist with 17 years of pediatric experience. She has practiced in several specialty areas, including burns, neurorehabilitation, brachial plexus injury, cerebral palsy, and aquatic OT. She is a Certified Instructor for the Cognitive Orientation approach to Occupational Performance (CO-OP) method and leads the Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) clinical specialty team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Patti is also adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati and is passionate about sharing knowledge with colleagues, students, patients, and families.
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