Page 37 - BTC Yearbook 2016

National University Hospital (Singapore) Child Development Unit
Touchpoints Site

Team members: Dr Chong Shang Chee (Senior Consultant Paediatrician), Dr Jennifer Kiing
(Senior Consultant Paediatrician), Dr Evelyn Law (Associate Consultant Paediatrician), Ms. Li
Wei Wen (Senior Staff Nurse), Ms. Alicia Lim (Senior Occupational Therapist)

Families impacting: We have been impacting families with young children and these include:
Children with special needs -- aged 7 years and below (seen in our Child Development Unit) and
children aged 7-12 years (seen in the school aged clinic); families who are accessing services at
the Department of Paediatrics, National University Hospital; high-risk families, for instance
mothers with perinatal mental health conditions (depression, anxiety)

Practitioners impacting: Practitioners that we are impacting are medical and allied health
professionals who work with young children and their families. These professionals include
paediatricians, psychiatrists, speech, physical and occupational therapists, audiologists,
psychologists, nurses, social workers, case management officers in perinatal mental health

Community impact: The professionals who have received training are more family-centric and
sensitive to needs of parents. They are more empowered to help vulnerable families in their care
as they now know of a way (the Touchpoints Approach) when they are with these families. The
interaction between the families and the practitioner has improved due to a change in
professionals’ perspective and attitude towards these families. An example would be our Child
Development Unit, where most staff have been trained in Touchpoints and are willing to open a
‘can of worms’ with the family. They seem to be more receptive and willing to listen and family
needs. This is no longer just the social worker’s responsibility and the Unit as a whole is more
family centered.

Collegial relationship among the professionals have appeared to improve as there is a paradigm
shift to a more collaborative approach when professionals of different disciplines work with
families. We now a common goal and language when helping these families.

Additionally, we applied for an educational grant (see below) to evaluate the Touchpoints as a
novel way of teaching family-centered practice within paediatric care in an Asian site hospital.
Among the residents we surveyed, the significant findings were that they enjoyed real-life
demonstrations, small group work and role play tremendously as a way of learning about
Touchpoints. The Touchpoints teaching significantly improved residency competencies in 6 core
domains of professionalism, communication skills, core knowledge, patient care skills, practice-
based learning and systems-based practice (p< 0.001). It was “useful”/“very useful” in domains
of understanding child development (78%), social-emotional development (89%) of children,
and enhanced their ability to talk to families (78%).

Highlights since you began: Being awarded with the National University Hospital Innovation
and Creativity in Education Fund (NICE) – this education fund was awarded to our team to allow
for more professionals—mainly paediatric residents and professionals from multiple disciplines
within NUH to be trained in Touchpoints. We performed an evaluation of how the residents