Using reliability of change analysis to evaluate post-acute neuro-rehabilitation

BACKGROUND

It is important to evaluate change in order to re-assure commissioners, staff and patients of the effectiveness of interventions, but also in order to identify areas for improvement.

OBJECTIVE

To consider whether analysis of improvement at the level of the individual, taking into account measurement error, may offer a further valuable way to assess change and inform service development over considering change at the group level in a post-acute neuro-rehabilitation unit.

METHOD

Pre and post intervention Scores on the FIM+FAM Full Scale and Cognitive and Motor subscales were considered for eighteen patients aged between 35 and 81 with mixed diagnoses who attended a post-acute inpatient neuro-rehabilitation unit for treatment.

RESULTS

Statistically significant improvements were achieved on the FIM+FAM Full Scale and Cognitive and Motor subscales in a whole group analysis. Reliable change analyses for each patient within each subscale however identified only half of the sample achieved reliable improvement within the Motor domain and just one person within the Cognitive domain (5.6%).

CONCLUSIONS

Findings are consistent with the emphasis of the rehabilitation unit on physical/motor function, and unsurprising as many of those assessed had multiple sclerosis, an often deteriorative condition. Use of reliable change analysis allowed a more detailed understanding of intervention impact, potentially identifying what services reliably work for whom, thereby informing future planning.

Flooding treatment of phobia to having her feet touched by physiotherapists, in a young woman with Down's syndrome and a traumatic brain injury

This case study describes the treatment of a 32-year-old woman with Down's syndrome and a recent head injury, for phobia to treatment of her feet by physiotherapists. The phobia had the potential to severely limit rehabilitation progress in terms of the client regaining the ability to stand, assist with transfers (including to and from a car), and walk. A single session, in vivo, flooding intervention was used. The treatment resulted in a substantial change in tolerance of physiotherapists' touching of feet to the extent rehabilitation was able to proceed within the bounds of expectation had a phobia not been evident. Benefits were maintained at multiple follow-ups. The results of the case study extend the evidence for the utility of such behavioural interventions to people with complex disability and unusual phobias in neurological rehabilitation systems.