Gretschel D.1, Visagie S.1, Inglis G.2
1Stellenbosch University, Centre for Rehabilitation Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2Stellenbosch University, Physiotherapy Division, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Background: Community integration is one of the most important outcomes of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation services should aim to optimise community integration of persons with disabilities through the processes of functional re-education, prevention of secondary complications, provision of assistive devices and/ or environmental adaptation. Studies conducted in South Africa show that rehabilitation services in the country often do not achieve community integration of persons with disabilities. The need to quantify the levels of community integration of persons with disabilities who received in-patient rehabilitation was identified.
Purpose: To determine levels of community integration of adults with disabilities post discharge from a specialised in-patient rehabilitation centre in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.
Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive study design was used. Fifty-nine individuals discharged from the rehabilitation centre (September to November 2012) participated in the study. A demographic and medical data sheet was used to collect background information on participants. Levels of community integration were determined with the Reintegration to Normal Living Index (RNLI).
Results provide descriptive statistics on age, gender, medical diagnosis as well as the various RNLI domains, subscales and the overall RNLI scores. Kruskal-Wallis and t-tests were used to determine if any relationship existed between age, gender, medical diagnosis and RNLI scores (p 0.05).
Results: Participants mean age was 45 years. Fifty-four percent of the study participants were women. The most common diagnoses were stroke (41%) and spinal cord injury (30%). The mean overall RNLI score was 66.3. The RNLI domains `personal relationships (73.45) and `presentation of self (72.13) recorded the highest mean scores. The domain `work/meaningful activities had the lowest mean score (52.54). `Community mobility and `recreation also had mean scores below 60. No statistically significant relationships were found between age, gender and medical diagnosis and RNLI scores.
Conclusion(s): The results show that persons with disabilities, who received in-patient rehabilitation and were discharged into their home and community environments, achieve lower overall RNLI scores than persons with disabilities living in well-resources countries. Low levels of integration in areas such as community mobility, and participation in social and meaningful activities might be an indication that persons with disabilities still face many barriers in the communities.
Implications: Rehabilitation professionals may need to adjust rehabilitation programmes offered to improve community integration outcome levels of clients.
Funding acknowledgements: South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP)
Topic: Disability & rehabilitation
Ethics approval: Health Research Ethics Committee (HREC); University Stellenbosch
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
