Specialised ECVET Training of Caregivers for People with Cerebral Palsy

The CP-CARE project was focused on the Cerebral palsy (CP) – the most common physical disability in childhood, with a prevalence of 2–3 per 1000 live births in Europe and the improvement of the quality of the care provision towards kids with CP. The term CP encompasses a heterogeneous group of disorders, causing activity limitations that are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. The motor disorders of CP are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, perception, cognition, communication, behavior, by epilepsy and by secondary musculus-skeletal problems. The level of disabilities of children with CP is widely distributed, and not limited to motor disturbances. Other disturbances include disturbances of cognition, communication and behavior. The management of CP is based on a multidisciplinary team approach including pediatricians, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social workers, special educators, orthopedic surgeons.This project gave the opportunity for caregivers to follow up on the basic and essential exercises or therapeutic interventions and the usage of assistive and/or adaptive devices needed for the children with cerebral palsy in their daily life.The developed curriculum and training material have been developed by a consensus of the professionals working in the CP-CARE project. CP-CARE project contributed to the basic knowledge and principles about the evidence based care intervention as well as updating knowledge, skills and competences of the caregivers.The CP-CARE training programme itself had one major goal – to increase the independence of these children in the activities of daily living by training the caregivers as well as the physiotherapist’s practical therapeutic support and correct follow up daily care advices for the neuro-musculoskeletal system.The project achieved successfully its main aims and objectives through the development of the following Intellectual Outputs:• IO1: CP-CARE scoping didactic frameworkThe scoping didactic framework document was concluded based on a predefined quantitative and qualitative analysis of the national findings related to physiotherapy provision at home by caregivers, physiotherapists and supportive organisations. This update was really needed since between the submission and starting of the project there were changes in terms of policy and service provision, which the partnership were not able to predict. The framework consists of caregivers' needed skills and competences, blended learning methodology description and pedagogical approach for the delivery of the CP-CARE training curriculum and modular course.• IO2: CP-CARE curriculum, training course and assessment mechanism (ECVET based)This output outlines the content for the mobile and online learning platform in terms of exercises, supporting material (audio, video, text, images). Here the educational approach was crucial, especially when considering the target users group of physiotherapists and caregivers. The created curriculum and subsequent content was fine-tuned throughout the project duration, following an iterative approach. The content of this output includes the following modules in all partner languages + English:Module 0 IntroductionModule 1 Prevention of secondary problemsModule 2 Basic Principles of Treatment and CareModule 3 Assistive Technology and CPModule 4 PhysiotherapyModule 5 Rehabilitation ProgramsModule 6 Other Physiotherapy and/or Complementary InterventionsModule 7 Burnout of caregivers• IO3: CP-CARE mobile application for Android tabAn innovative mobile training platform has been developed. It allows for an interactive learning experience anytime and anywhere (PC/smartphone/tablet PC -Android- based online learning platform/application), multilingual, and following the Open Source approach (“for free”), provided freely to the families, home and health caregivers via https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cpcare.mobile. The platform is embedded in a multilingual CP-Care portal (http://cpcare.eu/elearning/) that brings together relevant information and services. It serves as a peer-learning platform between the caregivers, and allows to maintain the mobile content.• IO4: Usability and exploitation reportThis report presents the national findings in terms of the pilot implementation phase, and description of the gathered impact. The project results were launched via 2 important multiplier events: 19/06/19 in Ankara, Turkey and 02/10/19 in Ypers, Belgium. Both events attracted more than 200 national and EU practitioners in the field of CP care provision.The project also successfully realised blended learning and training activities for VET trainers - C1: Istanbul, Turkey (June '18), C2: Madrid, Spain (November '18), C3: Brussels/Ypers/Poperinge, Belgium (October '19).All project results are freely available in EN/TR/BG/NL/ES via: www.cpcare.eu