Improving Rehabilitation Outcomes through Self-Management: My Therapy

The aim of this partnership grant is to evaluate scaled up implementation of the My Therapy program, with respect to effectiveness, cost effectiveness and factors influencing implementation, across inpatient rehabilitation wards in the public and private partner healthcare organisations.

My Therapy is a consumer driven, self-management rehabilitation program that is tailored to individual needs. It is prescribed by the treating occupational therapist and/or physiotherapist and can be practised within business hours, in the evenings or over the weekend (6). We have shown that My Therapy can achieve around 100 minutes of extra weekly practice alongside usual care rehabilitation, without additional staffing resources, adverse events or safety concerns, by hospitalised older people with musculoskeletal conditions and frailty (7). Compared to usual care, more than double the proportion of My Therapy patients achieved a minimal clinically important difference in function from admission to discharge. It can also be delivered safely to people with cognitive impairment (6). We expect to influence national and international models of rehabilitation. By collaborating with clinicians and patient consumers, we will increase the dosage of rehabilitation, with an anticipated reduction in length of stay and cost, higher functional status achieved by discharge, and improved patient ability to self-manage their health. This project will couple knowledge generation and knowledge translation with cost-effectiveness analyses.