title: Evaluation of a child development centre in a rural area.
abstract: In this article we discuss the setting up of a child development centre for children with a developmental delay in a rural market town away from a tertiary centre. The process was evaluated by a variety of methods including analysis of centre activity, preliminary questionnaires to parents at the end of their child's assessment, reflections by the centre team and in the final year of the project, a survey of all parents who had used the service, professionals who worked in it and other agencies in the centre town and a comparison town. Parents and staff reported high levels of satisfaction in relation to multidisciplinary working, venue, communication, and a child/family friendly approach. Further work is needed in developing links with social services and the voluntary sector.
authors.affiliation: Community Health Care, South Bank University, London, UK. thurtlvj@sbu.ac.uk
authors.forename: Val
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Thurtle
authors.forename: Dot
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cordle
authors.forename: Nansi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012424:Rural Population