A description of cognitive rehabilitation at Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital – Balancing comprehensive holistic rehabilitation and retraining of specific functional domains

BACKGROUND: Measures of cognitive rehabilitation should include comprehensive holistic rehabilitation as well as interventions targeting specific cognitive functions; it is however not clear how this knowledge should be put into practice. OBJECTIVE: To describe services provided at the cognitive rehabilitation unit at Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital (SRH), a regional rehabilitation centre in Norway. METHODS: Cognitive rehabilitation programs offered at SRH are described. For all patients served in 2011 and 2012, epidemiological and hospitalization related data were retrieved. Results from a patient satisfaction survey are presented. RESULTS: The services include individual holistic cognitive rehabilitation as well as group programs. 307 individual patients were served in 355 hospitalizations; 68.1% were male; age ranged from 18 to 78 years. The largest patient groups were stroke (46.6%) and traumatic brain injury (33.0%). Mean length of stay was 36.9 days. Median time post injury was 0.8 years (range 16 days - 14 years). More than 90% of the patients were satisfied with the services they received to a large or very large extent. CONCLUSIONS: Providing cognitive rehabilitation that encompasses both a holistic approach and targets specific cognitive functions is challenging. More research is warranted to illuminate further how cognitive rehabilitation services should be designed and conducted in practice.