Home therapy programs are a great way to support your participants to reach their goals in therapy. Home programs are a great way to help participants achieve positive outcomes as well as introduce them to the concept of building a support network.
Starting small and building up a therapy routine can be challenging - but with a few handy tips and digital tools like the Theratrak app, we can help take a bit of the pressure off families and optimise results for participants.
Read our top five tips below for creating effective home therapy programs.
What do therapists need to run efficient therapy home programs?
A Guide for Therapists: How to Create Effective Home Therapy Programs
5 Tips for Running Effective Therapy Programs
1. Start small to achieve more over the long term
Simplicity is important. While setting goals and even challenges have their place, the last thing we want to do is overwhelm our participants to the point of fatigue.
Choose just a few activities to focus on at a time within a home program.
For the best chance of producing good outcomes, it’s important to emphasise the role of clear objectives and narrowing the focus of complex activities to more digestible size. Nobody likes to have a massive to-do list hanging over their head - so keeping home programs simple helps to keep a more productive headspace.
2. Create custom content for each program and participant
In therapy, the more you can tailor your home program to your participants and their needs, the more likely they will be able to complete the program and build skills over time.
It’s important to be mindful of the wonderful human you’re working with and taking the time to understand their individual motives - then you can tailor your practice for the best possible outcome from their program.
Assess the situation and aim to understand the participants objectives and offer to align the activities you set to suit their style. Desires are a powerful force of nature so when you’ve got a program centred around the why of doing therapy, then you can match participants with their activities and keep them inspired. Keep things fresh and don’t forget to measure progress to gauge how things are moving along and adjust accordingly.
Putting in the time to create customised activities and exercises can tap into the strengths and interests of the participant by making for a more enjoyable and personalised adventure.
Another great way to make therapy fun is to leverage the different ways you can document your journey on Theratrak. It's super easy to add photos and videos straight from your therapy session to capture how participants complete the activities. Or you could talk over their videos giving guiding instructions. Voice encouragement can help your participant to feel supported outside of sessions which will build rapport, and can convey a sense of comfort especially during challenging times.
3. It takes a village so get them involved
All the benefits of therapy can be compounded if participants have the support of a guardian integrated into their therapy program.
One of the most impactful ways to fast track progress in life, business and therapy programs is to surround yourself with the best support network possible.
Make sure parents and families understand how to complete the home therapy program, they know what skills the activities are building, and they know the key goals you’re all working towards.
We all have strengths and weaknesses and usually the people closest to us can support us with those. It’s helpful to get a range of honest feedback from supporters who can help to cover blind spots. Therapy is a holistic practice that will integrate with those closest to you so it's a great idea to have them on board for the journey so make sure you integrate guardians into the program to boost the participant to their fullest potential.
4. Set custom reminders and celebrations
Notifications can be the little push you sometimes need to break the inertia and get moving. Timely and relevant reminders are one the simplest ways to keep a participant on track.
Speak to your participants to see what times they do their therapy and the types of messages that would inspire them to keep going.
You could set a notification reminder for 7am with the message: “Get ready for school routine reminder”. Or you could set a notification reminder for 4pm with the message: “Yay! Therapy time!” It depends on how the participant will response. Tailor something that will help motivate them.
Integrating reminders into your participants' lives makes it easier for them to complete their programs. Via Theratrak, custom notifications for participants can be easily configured within home programs. Custom messages are also a helpful way to celebrate achievements and milestones. Celebrating therapy milestones help to reinforce their amazing commitment and reflect on the benefits that therapy has brought to their life.
5. Celebrate progress along the journey
Over time we become more familiar with repetitive tasks or routines. Progress gradually emerges out of all the little steps forward we make with each attempt, and reflection on that progress builds understanding and confidence.
Accomplishing something that is fundamentally quite complex feels great and keeps participants motivated to commit to their long term development programs.
Make sure you take time to celebrate progress and regularly look back with participants on how much has been achieved in longer periods of time.
So how can therapists build an effective home therapy program?
The best home programs are the ones that are suited for their participants.
Therapists should keep it simple, make the most of technology, and lean on a support network for participants and their home programs. With tools like Theratrak, therapists can craft personalised custom home programs for participants quickly and easily.
The platform has been designed to be as easy as texting and we’ve had therapists create custom home programs for participants with three activities to be repeated several times weekly - all created in less than three minutes!
To find out how about how Theratrak can help create effective home therapy programs, book a demo or find out how it works.
