Developing and maintaining of user-defined personal competencies among young adults with congenital physical disability.

Outcomes from a developmental instructional training course for youths with congenital physical disability have been investigated for the purpose of clarifying whether or not the participants' personal competencies in terms of living an independent life were developed and whether or not these competencies were maintained after termination of the project. In the course of the intervention, there was focus on user involvement and each participant defined his own occupational performance problems, articulated specific goals for the intervention and evaluated the results by means of the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). Eight young adults participated in the course from 16-26 months with a follow-up evaluation 10-20 months later. Changes in COPM scores on performance and satisfaction indicate that the participants developed personal competencies and that it was possible to maintain some of these competencies after completion of the course.