New Tool To Better Understand How Allergies Impact Our Patients' Lives

When an allergic patient or parent of a child managing an allergy reaches out for therapy, it's important for me to learn how the allergy impacts their lives. Sure, they are reaching out because they feel overwhelmed or anxious about their allergy, but that's just the overall picture. And in order to truly help my patients, I need to get a more detailed picture. 

I do this by asking patients to complete the appropriate Food Allergy Psychosocial Information Form as part of their intake paperwork. The responses on this form gives me a solid glimpse into their quality of life, which domains are most impacted, and psychosocial themes that may need adjusting. It's a tool that has helped me more effectively meet my patients' needs and ensure they're feeling understood for years now. 

After sharing these forms during consultation sessions with allergy practices and fellow therapists, it became clear that these tools may be beneficial to others. Therefore, I've decided to offer them to allergy and therapy practitioners, too.

Read on to learn more about how they're beneficial to both patients and providers!

The Food Allergy Psychosocial Information Forms are premade AND customizable! That means that you don't have to spend time creating them, and can personalize them with your practice's logo and information.

​Versions available:

• Therapy Practice Version - child, adolescent, adult, parent/caregiver
• Allergy Practice Version - child, adolescent, adult, parent/caregiver
• Currently available in paper format; fillable format coming soon
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What are the differences between the therapy and allergy practice versions? 
All four forms are available for both, but questions vary slightly between both versions so that they are more tailored to the scope of the practices.  
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What Information Does These Forms Gather:
These patient narrative forms allow for detailed responses on themes such as: 

• Allergy mindset and outlook
• Anxiety levels and quality of life (QoL) impacts
• Behavioral changes (i.e. restricted eating patterns, limiting experiences)
• Impactful memories from previous reactions
• Epinephrine knowledge and/or fear of use
• Allergy care guidelines being implemented
• Sources used to learn allergy information
• Allergy impacts in various domains
• How patients manage their allergy well
• What information will help patients decrease anxiety/increase QoL
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Benefits of Using These Forms in Therapy Practices: 

• Premade and customizable for your practice​
• ​​One form gathers anxiety-related QoL, anxiety and functioning information
• Patient narrative format helps with treatment goal planning
• Patient may feel more comfortable sharing this information initially in writing
• Potential networking tool with allergy practices - helps allergists identify patients who may benefit from therapeutic support to positively impact QoL
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Benefits of Using These Forms in Allergy Practices: 

• ​Premade and customizable for your practice
• One form gathers anxiety-related QoL, anxiety and functioning information
• Opportunity for patients to feel heard/more easily express allergy struggles
• Helps identify patients' allergy knowledge gaps or inaccurate information
• Helps assess potential need for allied health services (i.e. therapist, dietitian)
• Identifies themes to reassess/revisit with patients in future appointments

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Suggestions/Tips For Use:

• For All - Give to patients as part of intake paperwork process
• For Allergy Practices - If allergist is unable to review due to time constraints, consider having another team member review and share main points​

Narrative Versus Validated Patient Forms?
It's like comparing apples and oranges - both are fruit, but different kinds. Both narrative and validated forms gather valuable patient information, but in different manners. 

Validated assessments, such as the Survey of Food Allergy Anxiety (SOFAA), typically assess functioning and impacts that helps drive diagnosis and treatment decisions.

Patient narrative forms, such as these Food Allergy Psychosocial Information Forms, primarily gather information to aid in understanding the whole patient. While they may also be used to help determine treatment decisions, their primary purpose is gathering information that helps to facilitate conversations and problem-solve with patients. 

[The images above show the Parent/Caregiver - Therapy Practice version]

Visit the "Worksheets" page to check out and learn more about these Food Allergy Psychosocial Information Forms​, and don't hesitate to reach out with questions!

Special introductory pricing is available through March 31, 2022, and there will always be a discount for purchasing the package, which includes all 4 forms. 

Direct URL to the Worksheets page: www.FoodAllergyAnxiety.com​