MISSION, VISION, & STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

VISION: Persons with neurological disabilities achieve meaningful participation in life.

MISSION: To engage and support a global interdisciplinary community dedicated to improving function and participation of persons with neurological disabilities through Neuro-Developmental Treatment (NDT) education and research.

EDUCATION

1. Grow, diversify, and extend our educational offerings into multiple markets (including academia, international market, micro education, conference, distance learning, etc.).

• Provide educational opportunities for new grads for an identified period of time.
• Develop short virtual educational offerings and micro-credentials on a variety of topics to engage a broader audience to include recent graduates, non-members, and people from the broader therapy community.
• Create opportunities for C/NDT members outside of the Instructor Group to provide education through webinars and annual conference.

2. Develop a pathway/continuum toward clinician competency leading to certification, advanced level courses, and instructorship.

• Create a framework and clear criteria for each level of education and methods to promote the pathway of clinician competency from foundation to highest level of NDT certification.
• Offer a variety of education delivery models (virtual - synchronous/asynchronous, hybrid, in-person, podcasts) with a focus on innovative adult learning techniques.
• Update and standardize the NDT certificate course curriculum to include discipline-specific education.
• Charge the NDTA Instructor Group with examining the current process toward instructorship, to determine if all elements remain critical to successful instructor certification and creating a streamlined and expedited process to ensure a future instructor pipeline.

3. Educate families, patients, non-members, public, associations, medical personnel about NDT as a successful therapy for persons with neurological disabilities.

• Develop short educational offerings and resources for families and patients that advance NDT as a successful therapy for persons with neurological disabilities.
• Create and publish NDT case studies and resources specific to patients, families, caregivers, medical personnel, and other consumers.
• Establish a family/patient advisory board to help promote NDT as a successful therapy for persons with neurological disabilities.
• Establish a support group for patients, families, and caregivers to connect and share information related to their experiences with NDT therapy.
• Develop a robust online resource for patients and families to find C/NDT therapists.

RESEARCH

1. Develop NDT Core Principles that are standard across all NDT therapies to support NDT as a contemporary evidence-informed practice model.

• Create a task force representative of all disciplines to determine consistent NDT Core Principles.
• Evaluate and revise current competency forms to create measurable standards to support NDT approved Core Principles.

2. Establish a patient registry to collect data that can be used to prove NDT is an evidence-informed practice.

• Develop the framework for a data collection system.
• Collect pre/post videos to demonstrate improvement in patient outcomes.
• Identify training and informatics team for data input from C/NDT therapists.
• Create patient outcome measures that can be used to assess achievement of NDT Core Principles and NDT as an evidence-informed practice.
• Create a database that collects NDT certification course participant performance data and use trends.

3. Create resources for clinicians to learn research study design, implementation, data analyzation, and publication process.

• Design and develop a process for completing single case research studies with repeated measures, based on NDT Core Principles.
• Create virtual “How To” education, resources, and tools that are easily accessible including existing resources, and examples of current research and how it’s applied in clinical practice.
• Develop a mentor program, made up of NDTA NDT-certified members and academics, and incentives for clinician-led research to encourage more NDT research.

4. Create a research pipeline by establishing relationships with academic institutions.

• Identify academic institutions with potential to support NDT as a contemporary practice and NDT research.
• Identify NDTA members with current NDT certification who are actively involved with academic institutions to serve as NDTA research ambassadors.
• Identify students at academic institutions in need of capstone projects and work with the research committee to support those projects.