PARTNER™
Family-centered care
- PPriorities of the family
- AAccessible, jargon-free language
- RRoutines as intervention
- TTwo-way communication
- NNeeds of the child
- EEmpower caregivers
- RRespect culture and values
What it solves
PARTNER turns the principle of family-centered care into a usable seven-step partnership model, so therapy actually transfers into the family's daily life instead of staying in the treatment room. It operationalizes the AAP definition of family-centered care for pediatric PT.
When to use it
Use PARTNER in any setting where a caregiver is part of the plan, which is nearly all of pediatrics: intake, goal-setting, home-program handoff, and any moment the family's priorities and yours need to line up.
In practice
Caregivers are collaborators, not observers. Lead with what the family prioritizes, translate clinical language into plain words, embed therapy in routines the family already runs, build two-way dialogue, and respect cultural context throughout. Therapy that disregards family goals rarely transfers into daily life.
PARTNER™ is one of 14 frameworks in the Playbook
Read the full treatment in Chapter 2 of the Pediatric PT Playbook (Family Centered and Child Centered Care), with the cases, scripts, and documentation to match.
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