Identifying your rehabilitation needs
It may not always be obvious that you have rehabilitation needs. Some people think side effects experienced after cancer treatment are to be expected, and they just have to live them. While side effects of treatment are often normal, that doesn’t mean you have to live with them; many can be reduced or eliminated.
The Brief Rehabilitation Assessment for Survivors of Head and Neck Cancer (BRASH) was created to help identify the issues you are experiencing that can be addressed by rehabilitation. It also help
s prioritize these issues so that you can seek help in managing them. You may wish to bring the BRASH with you to health care appointments to help remember to ask about any of your concerns.
The BRASH was developed with survivors, family members, and health care professionals. It is currently being validated through research, so please feel free to copy it for your own needs, but do not change it in any way.
Goal-Plan-Do-Check
Goal-Plan-Do-Check is a problem solving strategy used to help you meet any goal you may want to achieve. It consists of:
Courtesy of Project T.E.A.M – The Game Plan
Setting a GOAL – What you want to do
Coming up with a PLAN – What steps will you take to achieve your goal
DO – Carry out your plan and do what you said you would do
CHECK and see if your plan worked. If it did not, think about why, and how you might revise your PLAN to be more successful.
Planning Ahead
No matter how determined you are to do something, obstacles can come up along the way. To help address this:
1. Write down your goals
2. Create a detailed action plan
3. Think about potential barriers ahead of time. For example, you are going back to work full time and will have less time to exercise.
4. Plan how you will get around these barriers.
This workbook may help you problem-solve some of these issues ahead of time, and help keep information about the rehabilitation resources you need in one place.