YouTube Videos of the COPM

This News article presents an evaluation of 25 of the ‘most viewed ’ English speaking You Tube videos that demonstrated the COPM process. The criteria for the evaluation included accuracy and completeness of the COPM process, accuracy of the scoring, presentation of the form, whether the client was ‘real’, whether the COPM copyright was acknowledged, whether the occupational performance problems were linked to intervention goals, and whether it was a student assignment or completed by an occupational therapist.

There were over 120 videos of interviews and scoring using the COPM, and overall they were inaccurate, incomplete, and not client centred. Most, if not all, were student assignments. The ‘clients’ were also students who were not particularly adept in representing realistic clients’ occupational performance difficulties.

Many of the interviews were not client-centred. Frequently the students would stray into ‘intervention’ ideas rather than focusing on the issues/problems that the client identified during the interview. Some of the interviewers just asked the client to describe a typical day, and then the ‘student therapist’ would identify occupational problems for the client.

One of the strengths of the COPM is that the clients first think about the occupational problems they are having, then the clients identify the importance of each of the problems and choose   up to five problems that which they wish to work on in therapy. For those identified problems, clients estimate their current performance ability and their satisfaction with that ability. Those are the steps in the scoring process and they are incorrectly demonstrated in all but two videos.

The COPM’ s major value is as an outcome measure which is determined upon the differences in performance and satisfaction scores pre- and post-intervention. Only two videos demonstrated a post-intervention reassessment.

In summary, we cannot recommend any of the COPM You Tube videos. For accurate information about using the COPM, go to the learn page at  www.thecopm.ca. or access the COPM  learning module on the BUY page of our website – www.thecopm.ca. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *