Transitional rehabilitation goals for people with spinal cord injury: looking beyond the hospital walls.

PURPOSE This study aimed to identify, describe and classify the transitional rehabilitation goals of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and map these goals to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). METHOD The five most important rehabilitation goals as rated by clients were extracted from records for 220 clients of a transitional rehabilitation service for people with SCI in Australia over a 5-year period. These goals were thematically classified into domains and then mapped to the ICF framework. Goals were compared across age, gender, length of hospital stay, compensation status, level and completeness of injury. RESULTS A total of 1100 goals were classified into 18 different goal domains, representing most aspects of the ICF framework. Age was negatively related to vocational goals. Length of hospital stay was positively related to personal care goals but negatively related to community access and vocational goals. Goals did not differ across gender or compensation status but did differ across level and completeness of injury. CONCLUSIONS People with SCI have a range of transitional rehabilitation goals that represent most aspects of the ICF framework. Client-centred community rehabilitation during this transition period offers continuity of care to support the realisation of these rehabilitation goals. Implications for Rehabilitation Transitional rehabilitation is a relatively new community service model in the rehabilitation literature, especially for people with spinal cord injury. Client-centred goal setting is integral to these types of community rehabilitation models. Rehabilitation goals in transitional rehabilitation are varied and map well to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) with a focus on environmental goals. A typology of rehabilitation goals in this setting will assist in service planning and evaluation of hospital and community rehabilitation services.