Goal attainment scaling in post-acute outpatient brain injury rehabilitation

Therapists continuously strive for efficiency in clinical practice. Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) is a tool that can provide both a structure for objective documentation of patient progress and a means of program evaluation. This article describes the application of GAS in a comprehensive outpatient brain injury rehabilitation program. The benefits of GAS include: (1) objective data in monitoring participants' progress, (2) a structure for team confer-. ences, (3) facilitation of on oing rehabilitation planning and decision- making, (4) concise relevant information to funding sources, referral sources, and family members, and (5) a mechanism for program evaluation. For the brain injured person, GAS serves as a focus for an arra of multiple, often abstract rogram goals. GAS can also increase the participant's awareness of deficits being addressed in the program and of progress towards resolving these problems.