Introduction: Cerebral Palsy Integrated Pathway (CPIP) is a surveillance and management programme for children with cerebral palsy. The Occupational Therapy segment involves assessing participation, function and upper limb ranges at set time frames with the aim of providing timely intervention.
Aim: The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of how one community Occupational Therapy service in London, UK established this pathway and ensured it focused on occupational participation and child-centred goals.
Method: The service reviewed existing pathways and ways of working for children with cerebral palsy and reviewed the CPIP guidelines and manual. We identified children with cerebral palsy on caseloads and a new pathway was created. We started new assessment clinics involving functional assessments, discussion of participation and goals and measuring range of motion. We identified options for follow up treatment including goal focused therapy interventions, upper limb splinting, assistive technology and referral for botulinum toxin injections.
Results: This pathway has been running for 2 years and data from 60 children has been audited and will be presented. The pathway has resulted in improved clinical reasoning around splinting, improved communication with tertiary centres and most importantly an increase in evidence based treatment approaches including goal directed training.
Conclusion: This presentation will inspire others to make change in their own areas of work to support child-centred goals and work from a participation focused lens whilst also considering body structure and function domains. This presentation will highlight how innovative thinking can lead to improved outcomes for children with cerebral palsy.