Piloting of tele-health parent coaching for autism as part of a Child Neuropsychiatry service: Feasibility, preliminary results and lessons learnt
Erica Salomone
Early psycho-educational intervention with parents can improve global functioning and long-term outcomes of children with autism. Tele-health is an intervention strategy which is complementary to «face-to-face» services and can reduce costs for the public health system and families while maintaining therapeutic continuity. This study examines the piloting of a tele-health intervention practice called the PLAY model. The intervention consists in psycho-educational sessions with parents through online video-calls. Parents also access an Internet platform (TouchforAutism), which contains personalised educational and rehabilitation strategies. The study involved 91% of parents of children with autism up to 6 years of age attending a specialist autism service in Piedmont, Italy. Instrumental and psychological barriers to propensity towards the intervention were identified. The pilot phase demonstrated positive results for usability, acceptability and preliminary evidence of efficacy. Preliminary results suggest the feasibility of large-scale implementation of this tele-health psycho-educational intervention for parents of children with autism within the Italian public health system.
Keywords
Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders, tele-health, psycho-education, parent coaching.
