"Intensive-Home-Rehabilitation" Intervention for Older Persons: A Follow-Up Study of Team Members' Perceptions

Reablement as a concept includes a health-promoting perspective with the goal of strengthening health and the ability to perform and participate in daily activities, a broader perspective than in general home care and rehabilitation. Reablement interventions have shown to be both more effective and to a greater extent improve the function and health-related quality of life of older persons when compared to traditional home-based care. Success factors for intensive-home-rehabilitation (IHR), an intervention based on the reablement concept, have been described earlier; however, there is a lack of knowledge about why some persons do not recover despite receiving IHR.

The aim was to shed light on the older persons' conditions during IHR from the perspective of the rehabilitation team members and to describe obstacles to recovery.

Qualitative analysis of health and care records of persons (65+) who received IHR (n=19) performed by an interprofessional team.

The analysis revealed various problematic situations, dilemmas, that occurred in the older persons' lives during IHR, as well as their consequences and the strategies employed by the older persons as a result. IHR aspects perceived as successful by the older persons also emerged, as well as differences in experiences of the physical and mental aspects of the IHR. Analysis also revealed reasons why the IHR might be experienced as broadly successful.

The older persons seemed to be satisfied with IHR and achieved their goals; however, some seemed to need more time to reach their goals. Background factors such as having additional diagnoses and living alone might affect the rehabilitation process.

The study provides knowledge regarding the importance of IHR for the recovery process for the increasing numbers of older persons, which might also be useful in other patient groups requiring otherwise long-term rehabilitation and recovery such as after covid-19 infection.