Strategies for achieving an active everyday life – a completely internet-based rehabilitation program

The shift towards good and close care where people are expected to act proactively and take greater responsibility for their own health contributes to a need to develop new accurate intervention/action programs. It focuses on activities in everyday life and how changing activities can be used as a resource to promote health.

Many people with disabilities feel that the possibilities for an active everyday life are limited, while access to rehabilitation is inadequate and rarely directed towards the needs the people themselves experience. There is a need for many patient groups to receive support in the process of change that occurs when they need to adjust to an active everyday life under new circumstances. Rehabilitation focuses too little on the process of change that people must go through in order to adapt and their daily activities to a changed ability and life situation. Development of internet-based interventions creates new opportunities to improve accessibility and effects of rehabilitation and to offer more person-centered and equal conditions for interventions. Against this background, the internet-based intervention "Strategies for Empowering activities in Everyday life" (SEE, version 1.0), in Swedish "Strategies for achieving an active everyday life" has been developed for a broad target group.

The intervention, which is in a test mode in the national support and treatment platform 1177, supports the person to "see" their activities in everyday life in a new light through self-reflection and in developing self-management strategies that promote an active everyday life. SEE is unique in that it focuses on providing support in the complex challenge of developing sustainable self-management strategies that take into account that an active life requires engagement in a variety of activities, in different locations and in different social networks in society. The intervention gives the person the opportunity to take an active role in preventing and overcoming challenges in everyday life in a way that is sustainable over time. The intervention SEE includes a web-program in 1177, which is made up of modules and dialogues with an occupational therapist. In addition, SEE includes a web-based training program and an intervention guide that supports occupational therapists' implementation of the intervention in practice.

The purpose of the ongoing research is to test, develop and evaluate the completely Internet-based rehabilitation program, SEE, and its feasibility in clinical practice for different target groups such as people with stroke or long-term pain. Furthermore, it is clarified whether SEE has the potential to promote an active everyday life for the groups concerned. The knowledge gained through the research will identify areas for adaptation and improvement of both the intervention and study design, prior to a more large-scale evaluation of the intervention's effect.

Prel results indicate that SEE can support people in developing strategies and changing their everyday activities and their health. The research also provides valuable knowledge about the adjustment that changing operations and one's own professional role may entail when implementing new digital intervention programs.

The project is carried out in collaboration with Region Norrbotten: Sunderby Hospital, Paramedicine and Rehabilitation Medicine; Kiruna Hospital, Outpatient Rehabilitation and Piteå Älvdal Hospital, occupational therapy unit. The project has received funding from Kampradsstiftelsen, Stroke Foundation, Norrlands Stroke Foundation, Norr-backa Eugenia Foundation and Sweden's occupational therapists.