Visual Supports Survey Results
Description
The research hypotheses are: 1. The use of visual supports for children will be effective in improving patient experience during their visit to the paediatric emergency department during the COVID-19 pandemic. 2. The visual supports would be more effective for children with special educational needs, compared to those who are typically developing. A ‘Special Care Kit’ was created to provide resources to support children (both neurotypical and those with developmental needs), as well as their caregivers during their visits to healthcare facilities for COVID-19 related issues. The kit comprises a series of visual supports in the form of visual schedules, social stories, pictorial boards and animated videos with the aim of illustrating and explaining the different COVID-19 processes in a developmentally appropriate manner. The kit was made available online for free. Physical copies were also distributed to community clinics managing COVID-19 suspects, ambulances and hospital emergency departments. We conducted a short study to assess the effectiveness of the ‘Special Care Kit’ in improving the experience of children and caregivers during their COVID-19 related healthcare encounters. This was assessed through voluntary, anonymous surveys completed by parents or caregivers who had a COVID-19 related healthcare consult in an emergency department of a tertiary hospital from June to December 2020. All children and their accompanying caregivers were shown a relevant aspect of the kit prior to or during their medical encounter. Information collected included demographic data, developmental diagnosis, how the child usually communicates, as well as qualitative feedback on the supports. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse results. A total of 46 caregivers took part in the study. The mean age of patients was 5.1 years. Six (13.0%) patients had developmental difficulties (four patients had speech and language delay, two patients had autism spectrum disorder) with three of them being pre-verbal (using pictures or pointing and gestures to communicate). The rest of the patients were reported to have appropriate development. Almost all (98.0%, 45/46) caregivers felt that the Special Care Kit helped their child have a better healthcare experience, with thirty-nine percent (18/46) of them noting that their child was calmer and took the whole experience better than expected. Sixty-one percent (28/46) of caregivers felt that their child had a better understanding of what was going to happen during the encounter, and twenty-eight percent (13/46) felt that the supports helped with the communication between the medical team and the family. The majority (91.0%, 42/46) would like to have access to other similar supports during their child’s future healthcare visits.