Training rehabilitation teams in sexual health care: A description and evaluation of a multidisciplinary intervention

Background: Sexual health problems are more prevalent among people with a chronic illness or physical disability than among the general population. Although sexual health care in the rehabilitation setting in the Netherlands is a growing field of interest, integrating sexual health in the overall care for rehabilitation patients has proven to be a challenge. Methods: This article describes a training designed for rehabilitation professionals working in operational multidisciplinary teams. The main objective of this training is to help create a professional environment in which sexual health problems can be discussed, if possible prevented and when needed treated. A pretest-posttest design was used to measure the impact of this educational program given to six teams in the Netherlands. Results: The results demonstrated that the staff's knowledge, comfort levels and approach levels significantly increased. Team members were more active concerning sexual health and patient care. Conclusion: These findings clearly indicate that rehabilitation workers can benefit from a custom fit design team training on sexual health care. Strategically working with the modus operandi of a multidisciplinary team, such as task definition, determining pro- and reactive roles and formal agreements, appears to be of importance in integrating sexual health in the overall care for patients.