Across the past 12 months, the Rewire team have been engaging in training and education to work more as an interdisciplinary team (IDT) and have undertaken a pilot with a small number of clients at each hub to better embed interdisciplinary practice into service delivery.
Interdisciplinary practice brings together two or more disciplines to work in collaboration together, and to pool their discipline knowledge to provide client centred care to help people achieve their goals. This might include working with our clients to set some joint goals, deliver joint sessions and to review progress together as an IDT.
Interdisciplinary working improves open and direct communication, shared decision making, and problem solving and supports a clearer understanding of discipline roles and crossover, supports our staff to focus more on what is important to the client, and is associated with better outcomes for clients.
Goal setting is fundamental to rehabilitation and promotes engagement, can be effective at changing behaviour and provides a framework for measuring progress. To equip our staff with the skills to support clients in goal setting within an interdisciplinary team, all Rewire staff have been trained in using the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) as a tool to support this way of working.
Over the next 12 months we will continue to support staff to engage in IDT work by expanding this practice to more of our clients, and to use GAS to measure client progress and effectiveness of therapy.
Spotlight – New Service: Dietetics
In 2020, the Rewire team welcomed a new position and discipline to the team with the introduction of a dietetics service.
Our first Dietician officially joined the BISA team in July 2020 and has been working with our participants closely since to promote healthy eating for recovery post-brain injury. Adding to this one-on-one service, we have also established a monthly cooking class at each hub, providing an opportunity for participants to get together, socialise and to learn simple yet healthy and yummy meals.
Due to demand and interest, we are looking forward to extending this program to offer a baking group in the next financial year, to complement our primary cooking group.
