Determining whether occupational therapy goals match between pairs of occupational therapists and their clients: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Although most OTs and their clients perceived that they engaged in goal-setting together, only 21% of reported goals actually matched between OTs and clients. It would also be worth investigating whether there is any correlation between the content of goals, patient engagement in goal setting, degree of goal matching, and health outcomes achieved by clients following discharge from rehabilitation services.Implications for rehabilitationAlthough most occupational therapists (OTs) and their clients perceived that they engaged in goal-setting together, 79% of the goals independently reported by OTs and their clients did not match in seven post-acute rehabilitation wards across Japan.Goals were slightly more likely to match if the topic of the goals related to instrumental activities of daily living or participation (30.3%) or basic activities of daily living (24.7%) than if the topic of the goals were about body structure or body function (11.2%); however, the overall rate of goal matching was low.Japanese OTs need to develop more effective methods for recording or communicating goals in ways that clients can understand; this may be the same for other countries.