One of the most common patient goals we work towards in acute neurorehabilitation is often the one to be discharged home or to an alternative placement.
We recently had a patient admitted for a six-week assessment period to determine whether an escalation of distress was psychologically driven, neurologically driven or a mixture of the two. To give a bit of context to this situation, this gentleman had cerebral metastasis in his right frontal lobe secondary to lung cancer and had been sectioned several times over the past year due to risky behaviours towards self and others. Whilst he had a few goals that he wanted to achieve during his time with us, the main one was to go home to his family after rehabilitation.
Given that we had a short assessment period, the first question we asked ourselves was how were we going to work with him to achieve his goal?
Upon his inpatient admission, the gentleman was seen twice a week by physiotherapy and two to three times a week by neuropsychology for assessment. Physiotherapists and neuropsychologists are guided by evidence-based practice in their professions and use their knowledge from practice to develop the evidence.
After understanding the cause of an injury, they work to ease physical and psychological symptoms using a variety of techniques. Assessments using outcome measures and formulations are conducted to gain a holistic view to help to determine the best course of treatment for a patient.
The main goal of physiotherapy sessions for this individual was to improve his endurance, strength, and participation in activities that he enjoyed. He was measured for his upper/lower limb strength using the Oxford scale. ROM (Range of Motion) and MAS (Modified Ashworth Scale) were also used to identity that he had a normal passive and active range of motion over all joints, and no muscle spasms were evident.
Finally, we assessed using the Berg Balance Scale, which is an objective way of determining how well a patient can safely balance during a series of predetermined tasks. He scored 55/56 which indicated a low risk of falls.
Initially the main goal of neuropsychology was to assess the gentleman’s cognition, behaviour, and emotions to hypothesis whether the distress he displayed was neurologically driven.
Maja Kreninger, physiotherapy assistant
Whilst he was previously screened using a brief cognitive test several years earlier, there did not appear to be a reassessment since the cerebral metastasis diagnosis. Therefore a comprehensive baseline to measure any further changes was required.
During inpatient sessions, the gentleman completed a battery of psychometric assessments to measure his current level of cognition. This included a test of premorbid functioning to find out an estimate for intellectual level before diagnosis, a current level of cognitive functioning (after diagnosis), language, attention, memory, and executive functions (higher-level thinking skills such as planning, cognitive flexibility, decision-making etc).
His behaviour and emotions were tracked over time using a mood/ behaviour diary filled out by ward staff. Mood and quality of life measures were also completed.
Our second question then became, how ethical is it to just provide an assessment when an intervention may also prove effective?
The simple answer is that it is not ethical. What is the point of putting a person through intensive assessment that may evoke anxiety or frustration if you aren’t going to provide them with the tools or strategies to support the areas of difficulty? It was obvious that this individual wanted to go home after his assessment period, but it was likely that he would still benefit from having neuropsychology and physiotherapy input.
The model we jointly decided on with him was for him to come in as an outpatient one day per week. With input from his family, he concluded that Wednesdays were a good day for him to travel to the hospital, engage in his sessions and travel back home. That way his preference of living at home and receiving neurorehabilitation could be adhered to.
Initially he was scheduled in for two neuropsychology sessions and one physiotherapy session with rest breaks in between. However, it became apparent after the first outpatient appointment that he was unable to cope with the high cognitive and physical demands placed on him in his sessions and catching the bus all in one day.
In order to manage his fatigue levels neuropsychology sessions would reduce to once a week to and the number of weeks that he would be an outpatient would be extended to ensure that he received the intervention required.
As part of the physiotherapy intervention, the gentleman commenced a personalised strength training program using multiple gym machines. He was given a booklet with details about the exercises, correct methods, resistance, and repetitions so that he could access the gym on his own.
Joint sessions with Occupational Therapy were completed to ensure he could access the community, and exercises helped increase aerobic tolerance. This proved to be successful as he was able to independently go into town to complete activities of daily living, e.g., buying presents, going to the hairdressers etc.
As fatigue was one of the challenges encountered during sessions, physiotherapy focused on gradually increasing the amount of activity completed in a graded, flexible way that was monitored continuously.
Similarly, neuropsychology also created an individualised intervention to help build his awareness into his brain injury. The intervention consisted of six sessions to improve knowledge of the structure and function of the brain, neuroplasticity, fatigue, and cognitive and emotional changes after brain tumour.
The sessions highlighted strengths and weaknesses of his cognitive, behavioural and emotional profile providing feedback from the neuropsychological assessments. It also included strategies which could be implemented to support the gentleman at home. He was given his
Ellie Knight, assistant psychologist
own folder with all of the session information to use as a memory aid and to share with family.
Over time, he began to recognise his limitations in relation to fatigue and understood that he could take breaks, complete tasks when he was less tired and show self-compassion.
He reported that his brain injury awareness improved, and he felt much steadier on his feet. He started to engage in community activities such as going to the cinema and regularly walking near his home. After seven weeks as an outpatient the gentleman was discharged from our neurorehabilitation service – his main goal achieved.
Upon reflection, the first step of his rehabilitation was setting SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-related) goals that were tailored to his needs and wishes. This improved his motivation and confidence to participate in sessions knowing that we were all working with him to achieve discharge home.
Developing a sense of strength is a personal journey for every patient, whether it is physical, mental or in an everyday setting. As rehabilitation practitioners it should be our duty to assist them in this journey which will lead to improving their wellbeing and quality of life.
- Written by Maja Kreninger (physiotherapy assistant) and Ellie Knight (assistant psychologist) of Renovo Care Group
