Consultative Rounds

Services

Vermont Continence Project Consultative Rounds

Consultative rounds are the Vermont Continence Project’s professional-to-professional model of support for complex incontinence cases. We collaborate with your local team to create a plan they can implement. Consultative rounds referrals are generally short term, and are focused on expanding the skills of all disciplines who support incontinence.

How can consultative rounds help my team?

The Vermont Continence Project will work with your team to gain a deeper understanding of incontinence and of the challenges you are facing. We offer and the strategies and resources needed to address your concerns and support you to craft a plan. After consultative rounds, we will create a summary of our recommendations and provide any relevant resources.

How to register for consultative rounds

Any professional member of a team (including physicians, educators, school nurses, mental health professionals, or administrators) can refer a child for consultative rounds. A “team” is defined as all of the relevant professionals who support a specific child across medical, social services, and educational services.

Before referring, your team must complete the following steps:

• Read our FAQs to see if Consultative Rounds fits your team’s needs.
• Organize your local team: The team must include representatives from primary care, education, and social services (if any social services are involved). You must provide email contacts for all team representatives, or your point person is exclusively responsible for communicating with that person.
• Identify a point person for your team: The point person will be responsible for coordinating with VCP and local team to schedule meetings, communicate with VCP team by email, provide VCP team with up to date team contact information, disseminate content from VCP to local team.
• Organize needed family support: Some families require intensive implementation support. If the family has significant social complexity, such as homelessness, caregiver disability, or language access needs, please bring these supports to your team as part of your referral process. This may take the form of interpreters, case workers, respite providers, or services.
• Complete a medical screening and relevant treatment: The VCP focuses on medical management first because 95% of children experiencing incontinence have functional constipation. The guidelines below are aligned with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN). These are suggestions, but will be expected prior to referring, particularly for any cases including fecal incontinence. Our consultants can support the local medical provider to navigate diagnostic and treatment options prior to referral, and can support social services to improve implementation.
  • Recommended diagnostic guidelines:
    • 10-14 consecutive days of round-the-clock bowel data using our data sheet
    • Bowel Symptom Tracking Sheet
    • Please refer to our webpage Poop and Pee Accidents for educational materials and data sheets in support of diagnosis and parent psychoeducational
  • Recommended treatment guidelines:
    • Complete disimpaction
    • Implementation of a maintenance plan with an action plan
    • Please refer to our webpage Medical Treatment Options