title: Life care plans: an emerging area for occupational therapists.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Life care plans, or cost of future care reports as they are often called in Canada, are medico-legal documents that predict probable future medical and rehabilitation needs and costs. They are used when someone has sustained a serious personal injury in an accident, as the result of medical malpractice, or due to some other unnatural cause. Life care plans are generally commissioned by third-party payers in order to set aside adequate reserves for future costs or to negotiate a settlement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Life care plans need to be grounded in knowledge of how personal injury law has been applied and interpreted. Therefore, Canadian law pertaining to the costs of future care in personal injury will be briefly reviewed. The balance of the article discusses the process used to develop a life care plan, the necessary content, and accepted formats for reports. The article concludes with a case example that demonstrates the application of life care planning skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Occupational therapists are well suited to developing these plans by virtue of their training, knowledge base, and theoretical approaches. This is an emerging consultative role for experienced therapists.
authors.affiliation: School of Occupational Therapy, Elborn College, University of Western Ontario, London, ON. lklinger@uwo.ca
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Klinger
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baptiste
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010347:Patient Care Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*