The Use of Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) in Clients with an Acute Stroke

Abstract

Occupational therapy (OT) focuses on enabling individuals to participate in occupations of their choice. The aim of this study was to introduce a client-centred practice approach with clients who had experienced an acute stroke. Eighty consecutive clients who were referred to OT participated in the study. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) was administered to 29 clients. COPM is a semi-structured interview, designed to measure a clients’ perceptions of their occupational performance over time. The client identifies activities that are difficult to him or her and rates his or her performance and level of satisfaction in these activities. All COPM scores on satisfaction and performance have improved. The average score of improvement on performance was 2, and improvement on satisfaction was 2. Analysis of the changes on the COPM using Wilcoxon signed rank tests demonstrated that the changes were not statistically significant for both the COPM performance and satisfaction scores. We were able to assess and follow clients priorities in 36.25 % of acute stroke clients referred to OT.