Setting meaningful goals in rehabilitation: rationale and practical tool

Joost Dekker, Vincent de Groot, Anne Marie ter Steeg, Judith Vloothuis, Jasmijn Holla, Emma Collette, Ton Satink, Lenneke Post, Suzan Doodeman, Elsbeth Littooij

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Context: Goal-setting is a key characteristic of modern rehabilitation. However, goals need to be meaningful and of importance to the client. Axioms: Both theories and empirical evidence support the importance of a hierarchy of goals: one or more overall goals that clients find personally meaningful and specific goals that are related to the overall goals. We posit that the client’s fundamental beliefs, goals and attitudes (“global meaning”) need to be explored before setting any rehabilitation goal. A chaplain or other person with similar skills can be involved in doing so in an open-ended way. The client’s fundamental beliefs, goals and attitudes serve as a point of departure for setting rehabilitation goals. Setting goals: We set out a three-stage process to set goals: (1) exploring the client’s global meaning (i.e. fundamental beliefs, goals and attitudes), (2) deriving a meaningful overall rehabilitation goal from the client’s global meaning and (3) setting specific rehabilitation goals that serve to achieve the meaningful overall rehabilitation goal. Conclusion: This is an extension of current practice in many rehabilitation teams, which may help counter the drive toward exclusively functional goals based around independence.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3-12
Number of pages10
JournalClinical rehabilitation
Volume34
Issue number1
Early online date18 Sept 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2020

Keywords

  • Goal-setting
  • chaplaincy
  • meaning
  • rehabilitation
  • tool

Cite this