Novel occupational therapy intervention in the early rehabilitation of patients with brain tumours

Abstract

Statement of context

The Danish Health Authority recommends that patients with brain tumours should have their rehabilitation needs evaluated prior to hospital discharge.

Critical reflection on practice

To our knowledge, no specific recommendations for specialised occupational therapy intervention in patients with glioma have been published. We rationalise how occupational therapy practices founded on shared decision-making and common goal-setting are implicated to patients with brain tumours and elaborate on how an occupation-centred approach with occupation-focused and based intervention has the potential to impact a patient’s performance ability and satisfaction in performing occupations established by the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure. This practice was embedded in a randomised controlled trial investigating the effectiveness of intensive rehabilitation efforts and involving occupational therapy compared with standard care in patients with glioma (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT02221986).

Implications for practice

Occupational therapy makes an important contribution in neurorehabilitation, which may also apply to patients with brain tumours.