Cerebral Palsy Integrated Pathway (CPIP) for Occupational Therapists

Cerebral Palsy Integrated Pathway (CPIP) is a surveillance programme for children with cerebral palsy. The Occupational Therapy CPIP assessment was developed by Heather MacIntosh and Tahnee Conn in Scotland and is based on the Swedish CPUPs OT assessment. OT CPIP is now implemented in four health boards in Scotland with data entered on the same patient management system, hosted by NHS England, as the physio/orthopaedic assessments.

What is OT CPIP?

The goal of OT CPIP is to maximise the participation in occupations of children and young people (CYP) with cerebral palsy by regularly reviewing their activity and function using standardised outcome measures. The assessment considers CYP's current occupational performance profile; person centred goals and the impact of tone and/or spasticity on hand & upper limb function and the importance of early detection and intervention of these changes. The CPIP protocol involves twice yearly assessments with younger children and annual assessments with older children.

OT CPIP assessment has been in place in NHS Lanarkshire since 2015 and NHS GG&C since 2016. In that time we have seen improved consistency of access to evidence based pathways for children across both health boards. OTs involved in the surveillance programme have improved their understanding of cerebral palsy and the impact of spasticity and dystonia on hand use and participation in occupations. We have improved the communication between community therapists and acute colleagues, ensuring that referrals for Botox and other tone management interventions are led by child centred, occupation based goals.

Who is it for?

This training course is for occupational therapists who work in a service that is prepared to establish the OT CPIP surveillance protocol. Participant's will need a basic understanding of how to use a goniometer and be in a position to share the learning from the session with other members of their team. Following completion of this training, the participant’s service will be able to access the OT CPIP assessment on the CPIP management system.

Please note, places are limited on this course to one person per service. The expectation is that attendees share their learning with their teams. This course is for OTs with experience of working with CYP with cerebral palsy.

Practicalities

The study day will run from 9.30 am-4.30 pm at the Mary Sheridan Children's Centre London. It is a short walk from the Elephant and Castle Bus stops, underground and rail stations. There are good coffee shops close by for refreshments and shops for buying lunch if needed.

There will be a mixture of theory and practical activities including using goniometers. Please come dressed for this.

About the trainers

Tahnee Conn trained as an occupational therapist at the University of Sydney and has since worked as a community based, paediatric Occupational Therapist in Australia and Scotland for more than 20 years. She is the Occupational Therapy Advanced Practitioner, specialising in neurodisability, for the community OTs across NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. A key part of this role has been to achieve equity of access to OT assessment and intervention for children with cerebral palsy across the health board and to improve the pathway between acute and community services, this has led to the implementation of OT CPIPS across the health board.

Heather MacIntosh trained as an Occupational Therapist at Queen Margeret University, Edinburgh and has worked as an Occupational Therapist for more than 20 years most of these within NHS Lanarkshire Children and Young People service. She has specialised in early intervention in Neurodisability, especially within the area of cerebral Palsy focusing on upper limb therapy, Botox intervention as an adjunct and upper limb splinting.

A key interest in upper limb CPIP surveillance to enable occupation and improve access to services has led to development of the system within Lanarkshire and subsequent National rollout

Host or Publisher Anne Corbett, Learning2practice Ltd