Rehabilitation on a Cognitive Behavioural Unit Is Associated with Changes in FAM, not FIM

Functional Independence Measure + Functional Assessment Measure (FIM+ FAM) measures were taken for 38 clients on admission to and at discharge from an inpatient rehabilitation unit for people with cognitive and behavioural problems following acquired, single incident, brain injury. Over the course of the admission there was a significant improvement in FAM scores and cognitive and social items of the FIM+FAM. These improvements were not related to the amount of time elapsed between injury and admission to the rehabilitation unit. There was no significant change in FIM scores and neurophysical items of the FIM+FAM. Ceiling effects appear to have limited the scope for some of the FIM scales to detect change.