Client-Centred Rehabilitation - Arthritis Community Research ...

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Chapter 1: Background
1.1 Arthritis Community
Research & Evaluation Unit
The Arthritis Community Research and
Evaluation Unit (ACREU) was funded in
July 1991 under the Ontario Ministry of
Health’s Health System-Linked Research
Unit Grant Program. ACREU was
established to carry out health services
research with the goal of reducing the
impact of arthritis on individuals, their
families, and on the population.
1.2 Partnership with the
Rehabilitation Program Policy
Unit
This research project was conducted in
partnership with the Rehabilitation Program
Policy Unit of the Mental Health and
Rehabilitation Reform Branch, Ministry of
Health and Long-Term Care. As a Health
Systems Linked Research Unit, ACREU
worked with Ministry staff to finalize the
research question and to contribute to the
client-centred rehabilitation policy
framework. Research results will be
incorporated into broader initiatives aimed
at reforming Ontario’s rehabilitation system.
delivery model developed by the Provincial
Rehabilitation Reference Group (2000). One
of the main purposes of this framework is to
improve services to clients by creating a
client-centred, coordinated, integrated
continuum of rehabilitation services.
The specific objectives of our project were:
♦ To further develop the concept of
client-centred care in the Draft
Policy Framework and Service
Delivery Model as it applies to
rehabilitation.
♦ To identify client-centred parameters
for rehabilitation programs.
♦ To identify criteria for evaluating the
extent to which various rehabilitation
programs are client-centred.
The methodology consisted of:
♦ Review of the literature
♦ Focus groups with adult clients with
chronic disabling conditions
1.3 Objectives
The overall objective of this work was to
identify ways of operationalizing and
evaluating client-centred care as it applies to
adults with chronic disabling conditions in
publicly funded rehabilitation programs.
This work will support the Ministry’s
Rehabilitation Reform Pilot Project
Initiative to test effective delivery of
rehabilitation services and to test a service