Evaluating A Family Centered Approach to Leisure Education and Community Reintegration Following a Stroke

Abstract

The World Health Organization’s ICF shifts the focus of health from functional ability to improved capacity for living with the consequences of conditions such as a stroke. Reintegration into the family and community are seen as a measure of health. Seventeen couples in which one partner has had a stroke and were at least 6 months post discharge from a health facility took part in a project to develop a multidisciplinary family centered community stroke program. Participants self-reported their involvement in individual and community leisure pursuits and completed the Leisure Diagnostic Battery (LDB; Witt & Ellis, 1989) at pre- and post-treatment and 8-month follow-up to evaluate the Therapeutic Recreation Services component of this program. Participants were found to have increases in their perception of opportunities for leisure and the actual amount of involvement they had in community programs. Spouses’ perception of the leisure competence of the individual who has had a stroke also increased.