ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 national emergency led to a surging demand for telehealth expansion within pediatric occupational therapy. Despite the growing literature on telehealth as a response to COVID-19, few studies explore the use of telehealth for children and young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This pilot study aimed to understand the experiences of occupational therapists adapting to a virtual delivery service model amidst COVID-19 to support youth with ASD. The researchers used a qualitative research design. Semi-structured, video-based interviews were used to collect data. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. This study included 3 UK registered occupational therapists. Four themes emerged from the data: 1. "Telehealth is Reducing Social Anxiety" 2. "Parents End Up Becoming Your Therapy Assistants" 3. "Nothing Will Replace Face to Face for Assessments" 4. "You Definitely Have to Be More Creative." The themes report that telehealth can reduce social anxiety, increase skill transferability, and improve family involvement. Participants indicated that shorter sessions, movement-based interventions, planning and adapting to home-based resources were strategies that overcame the limitations of virtual therapy. The findings contrast with some previous research that found that telehealth may inhibit engagement and may strain the therapeutic rapport. This study supports existing literature that telehealth can enhance engagement, family involvement and generalization of skills. Findings from this study support the use of telehealth to deliver occupational therapy services for children and young people with ASD, but it is recommended that telehealth should not be a one size fits all service delivery model. Further larger-scale research is needed to confirm the study findings and to explore the family and young person's perspectives of using telehealth.
ABSTRACT
The English SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has been affected by the emergence of new viral variants such as B.1.177, Alpha and Delta, and changing restrictions. We used statistical models and the agent-based model Covasim, in June 2021, to estimate B.1.177 to be 20% more transmissible than the wild type, Alpha to be 50-80% more transmissible than B.1.177 and Delta to be 65-90% more transmissible than Alpha. Using these estimates in Covasim (calibrated 1 September 2020 to 20 June 2021), in June 2021, we found that due to the high transmissibility of Delta, resurgence in infections driven by the Delta variant would not be prevented, but would be strongly reduced by delaying the relaxation of restrictions by one month and with continued vaccination. This article is part of the theme issue 'Technical challenges of modelling real-life epidemics and examples of overcoming these'.