Rehabilitation agency of older adults in group-based intervention

Abstract

Aims: This study investigated the individual rehabilitation agency of older adults in a one-year group-based gerontological rehabilitation context. Here, rehabilitation agency is understood as being manifested when older adults make choices and decisions regarding their everyday lives, including notions of themselves.

Methods: The data were obtained via non-participant observation of the final individual goal evaluation sessions of 38 older adults with their personal counselor. In these sessions, older adults discussed their rehabilitation outcomes, actions, choices and decisions during the rehabilitation year, along with their future in home settings. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and an agency-centred approach.

Findings: The findings revealed that older adults made choices and decisions differently concerning their life in and beyond the rehabilitation context. Four forms of rehabilitation agency of older adults were identified: (i) renewable, (ii) widened, (iii) selective and (iv) fractured. These forms of agency were differently connected to older adults’ life courses and to their peer relations in the rehabilitation context.

Conclusions: An agency-centred approach could produce new theoretical ideas and practical implications for developing older adults’ rehabilitation to better meet their needs as well as the goals of group-based rehabilitation interventions.

Keywords:

• Client-centred rehabilitation
• gerontological rehabilitation
• older rehabilitees
• rehabilitation intervention

Acknowledgements

The research presented in this article was supported by Kela, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland as part of the development project Co-operative Rehabilitation for Aged Rehabilitees (IKKU 2009–2013). The authors wish to thank the rehabilitees and their counselors at the rehabilitation centers for their consideration and courage in opening up their rehabilitation sessions to the researcher. We are also grateful to the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments regarding this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.