Qualitative findings
All participants had heard the term ‘family-centered care’ (FCC),and most parents reported positive experiences with FCC related to professionals who were directly working with their child, especially related to targeting goals that were meaningful to the family and being treated as a valued team member. However, participants talked extensively about disconnects between family-centered “carers” (i.e., professionals “on the ground” with whom they had direct interaction) and the family-centered policies and practices perpetuated through administrators and funders, with whom the family may or may not directly interact (“care system”). These broad experiences emerged as a core theme “System of Exclusion”,
which integrated two key themes reflecting experiences with the “care system”: (1) “The Fight” and (2) “Roles and Restrictions of Care”. An additional key theme, “Therapeutic Rapport”, is presented separately because it reflected experiences with familycentered “carers”. This theme supported the relatively positive MPOC findings as participants often talked fondly about their experiences and perceptions of receiving FCC from individual professionals across sectors, especially for younger children. Table 4 describes and summarizes these themes, which are discussed below, illustrated with quotes from the interviews. Pseudonyms are used for all participants.