Introduction: In 2016, the inpatient stroke rehabilitation occupational therapy (OT) team at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) initiated the development of a therapeutic group called ‘Breakfast Club’. This program was developed to improve OT rehabilitation intensity goals, while providing functional rehabilitation opportunities. In Canada, rehabilitation intensity is the time that patients are engaged in individualized & task-specific treatment with a therapist. Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations (CSBPR) advises that patients should receive such therapy 3 hours/day, 5 days/week.[i]

Summary: Breakfast Club is a weekly 1.5 hour therapeutic group with an occupational therapist, OTA/PTA, and 2-4 patients. The group occurs in a circuit format that includes chopping vegetables, making coffee, preparing breakfast, cooking at the stove, eating, and washing dishes. The circuit format allows more opportunity for direct therapy & monitoring of patients by a therapist, which increases rehabilitation intensity time. Breakfast Club provides a functional context for patients to work on individualized goals, including upper extremity task-specific training, cognitive remediation, visual scanning, balance & mobility, social interaction & communication, and/or practice using compensatory strategies or equipment. It also addresses CSBPR recommendations for individualized interventions with an aim of resuming participation in desired activities for patients with impaired cognition post-stroke.[ii]

Conclusion: CSBPR states that in stroke rehabilitation, more therapy results in better patient outcomes.[iii] Breakfast Club is an innovative method utilized by the HHS inpatient stroke rehabilitation OT team to increase rehabilitation intensity time.

BREAKFAST CLUB: A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH TO ACHIEVING OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY REHABILITATION INTENSITY GOALS