Background People who have Huntington’s disease experience problems in performing daily activities.

During occupational therapy we examine these activities in more depth, with the goal to help the client function as independent and safe as possible.

Aims To gain a better insight into the experienced problems by HD clients during their daily activities and the prevalence of the activities restrictions.

Methods/techniques Clients who live at home come to Topaz’ Huntington Centre Overduin to gain advice and information. During occupational therapy assessment we discuss the experienced problems on activity level. During 2013 we made an inventarisation of the problems that were assessed. These data are ordered according to Reed and Sanderson.

Results/outcome In 2013 there were 33 clients who participated in the occupational therapy assessment of the advice centre. Thirty of those clients experienced problems during their daily activities. Three clients indicated that they didn’t experience any problems. In total, the clients indicated a total of 113 problems, of which 60 were different.

More than half (56%) pertained to self-maintenance, of which 62,5% about personal care.

Almost all (29/30) patients that reported problems also requested for help about selfmaintenance.

The most prevalent problems are:

1. Eating

2. Drinking

3. Dressing / Cooking / Writing / Everything takes more time

Conclusion 30 out of 33 clients experienced problems with performing their daily activities. Most of those problems were caused due to insufficient personal care.