Swiss Paraplegic Research

The Rehab Cycle

Assignment
Monica’s health care team consisted of her physician, nurse, a physical and an occupational therapist and a psychologist. The intervention targets were attended to by the corresponding team members (details can be seen in the Table 2 below).

The intervention targets associated with the personal factors and related to health behavior would be addressed by the psychologist to implement specific therapeutic approaches. However all health professionals integrated these intervention targets in their treatment.

Intervention
Interventions were undertaken over a five-week period. Supporting the repair functions of the skin involved medications, daily wound dressings, skin control and the positioning on a proper mattress. To improve mobility interventions such as muscle power training and transfer training assisted by the physical therapist were implemented.

Table 2:

Intervention Table

To improve the ability to look after her health and the related personal factors, the psychologist made attempts to focus on Monica’s body image through body awareness exercises (with an indicator value of higher acceptance), acceptance of the disease, increasing self-responsibility, and emotional stability as well as getting her to stop or reduce her smoking through a behavioral approach (with a goal indicator value of reducing smoking to 3 cigarettes/day).

Counseling and instruction focused on her abilities for self management. Interventions can be seen in more detail in Table 2.

more