Rehabilitation at home – development of a sustainable model, placing person’s needs and environmental resources at heart (InHome)

Each year, 25,000 persons in Sweden have a stroke, and many suffer from disabilities leading to activity and participation restrictions.

Despite this, rehabilitation mainly focuses on the person´s physical functions and not on the whole life situation and opportunities to live an active life.

If environmental factors were considered and integrated into the rehabilitation process, the situation would be improved for persons with stroke.

Given that rehabilitation today often is provided in the person’s home, there is a need to develop new models that integrate the environment into the rehabilitation process.

The proposed application is based on experiences from our ongoing research, where we study the importance of the home and surrounding environment for health and participation among persons with stroke rehabilitated at home. The results show unmet needs, which leads to suboptimal rehabilitation outcomes.

The aim is now to develop and evaluate a new model for rehabilitation where the needs of the individual person are the starting point and where the environment is integrated. This will be done in partnership with persons with stroke, their relatives, and healthcare staff. Methods include a knowledge synthesis, interviews, and focus group discussions with stakeholders and co-design.

The new model is expected to lead to improved quality of life, increased mobility outside the home, and faster recovery for the large group of people who are rehabilitated at home after a stroke.