Allied health professional rehabilitation in the UK

Abstract

Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) in the United Kingdom (UK) work across all healthcare settings including acute hospitals, rehabilitation wards, community teams, social care teams and voluntary sectors and within private healthcare. Within any of these settings, AHPs provide rehabilitation to enable and support recovery for the patient and facilitate independence and activity, as much as possible. Rehabilitation for the brain tumour patient involves a combination of surgical, cancer, neurological and palliative rehabilitation principles as a result of the complex and varying symptoms that fluctuate throughout the cancer journey- all of which will be explored in this chapter. Allied Health Professional rehabilitation can include many varied interventions from the AHPs involved and can include education about deficits; symptoms and impairments; a patient-centred approach to reducing dysfunction caused by impairments; involvement of family and friends; common goal setting; and, most importantly, multidisciplinary working to achieve individual rehabilitation goals. In this chapter, the varying professions that make up the term AHP are explored and how in turn each one has a pivotal role in supporting the glioma patient through their treatment pathways. This chapter also aims to give a basic knowledge of how rehabilitation interventions can help a person with glioma and their families, friends and carers with the aim of improving understanding of rehabilitation and making appropriate use of the rehabilitation services in your area.