Agency and engagement: older adults' experiences of participation in occupation during home-based rehabilitation.
BACKGROUND
Participation is considered the main goal of rehabilitation and occupational therapy intervention. This study focuses on older adults'participation in occupations in daily life when receiving home-based rehabilitation.


OBJECTIVE
To explore how older adults with disabilities participate in daily life subsequent to hospitalization.


METHODS
A prospective case-orientated design was used, with repeated interviews with three older adults and a constant comparative method of analysis.


RESULTS
Two main categories emerged as the participants' experience of participation: "Continuing to be an agent in daily life"captured the participants' decision making, choosing, and acting in daily life. "Life itself is the agent" identified how the participants, despite their strong wishes to be agents, also could let their participation be directed by their engagement in ongoing daily life.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings identified participation as a dynamic engagement ranging from individual agency, including decision-making, choosing, and acting in daily life, to letting life itself be the agent. The emphasis on agency in the participants' experiences challenges rehabilitation professionals to find further means of facilitating the clients' possibilities of being agents in their daily lives.
Vik
Kjersti
K
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Kjersti.Vik@hist.no
Nygård
Louise
L
Borell
Lena
L
Josephsson
Staffan
S
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009788:Occupational Therapy; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011446:Prospective Studies