Family meeting template for rehabilitation, with sample entries
A family meeting template for rehabilitation that records goals in the family's own words, with a sample entry for each section.
✓Goals in the family's own words
✓Questions logged with answers given
✓Tasks for family and team, dated
Free · No sign-up · Saves in your browser
What's inside
Who Attended
Purpose of the Meeting
Update from the Team
Questions and Concerns from the Family
Goals Agreed in the Family's Words
Decisions
Discharge and Home Planning
What the Family Will Do
+ 3 more sections
Preview · 11 sections
Rehabilitation Family Meeting Record
Patient
Patient ID
Meeting date
Meeting type (goal setting, review, discharge)
Chair
Note taker
Language used
Interpreter
Who Attended
Attendee
Name
Relationship or Role
How They Joined
Patient
Family member / carer
Family member / carer
Key worker
Team member
Purpose of the Meeting
Purpose of the meeting
Update from the Team
What the team explainedIn the plain words used in the meeting.
Questions and Concerns from the Family
Question or Concern
Raised By
Answer Given
Follow-up Needed
Goals Agreed in the Family's Words
Goal as the Family Said It
Team Wording
Who Is Working on It
Review Date
Decisions
Decisions agreedInclude any decision deferred until someone else is consulted, and who will consult them.
Discharge and Home Planning
Home and discharge planning
What the Family Will Do
Task
Family Member
By When
What the Team Will Do
Task
Team Member
By When
Next Meeting
Next meeting
Therapist Sign-off
Therapist
Designation
Registration
Date
How to fill it in
1
Who Attended
Name each attendee, their relationship or role, how they joined, and the meeting language.
More guidance
Name each person, their relationship to the patient or role on the team, and how they joined: in person, by phone or by video call. Record the language used and whether anyone interpreted, including family members. Note relatives who were absent but whose agreement the family said they need, such as an elder brother working abroad.
2
Purpose of the Meeting
State in one or two sentences why the meeting was held.
More guidance
One or two sentences on why the meeting was held: to set goals, review progress, plan discharge, or respond to a concern. Agreeing the purpose at the start keeps the meeting focused, and it tells anyone reading the record later what kind of decisions to expect in it.
3
Update from the Team
Summarise what the team explained, in the plain words actually used.
More guidance
Summarise what the team explained, in the plain words actually used. If you showed a video or demonstrated something, say so. Leave out technical terms the family did not hear. Describe what the team has observed and what it plans; avoid statements about how much recovery to expect unless the responsible clinician made them, and then quote them exactly.
4
Questions and Concerns from the Family
Log each question, who asked it, the answer given, and any follow-up needed.
More guidance
Log each question as asked, who asked it, the answer given, and whether follow-up is needed. Write “we will find out” honestly when the team did not know. Families commonly ask how long rehab will last, what it will cost, about returning to work or driving, and whether the patient can be left alone. Each answer should be one the family can rely on later.
5
Goals Agreed in the Family's Words
Write each goal as the family said it, then the team's measurable wording.
More guidance
Write each goal as the patient or family said it, then the team's measurable wording beside it, who is working on it, and the review date. Read both versions aloud before the meeting ends. If the patient and family want different things, record both and what was agreed, putting the patient's wishes first wherever they can express them.
6
Decisions
List each decision clearly, including any deferred and who will follow it up.
More guidance
List each decision clearly: programme length, home leave, a change in therapy times, a referral, a discharge date. Record any decision deferred until someone else is consulted, who will consult them, and by when, so the question does not drift.
7
Discharge and Home Planning
Record what the family says about home: who will care, where, stairs and help.
More guidance
Even at the first meeting, write down what the family says about home: who will care, which house the patient will live in, stairs and bathrooms, paid help, and work commitments. Families often reorganise the whole household around a returning relative, and knowing early lets the team plan training and equipment in time.
8
What the Family Will Do
List practical family tasks, each with a named person and a date.
More guidance
Practical tasks for family members, each with a name and a date: attend carer training, send photos of the bathroom, bring clothes for dressing practice, find out about a ramp. Keep the list short so it gets done, and check it at the next meeting.
9
What the Team Will Do
List the team's commitments, each with a named owner and a date.
More guidance
The team's commitments from the meeting, each with a named owner and a date. Families remember these, so record only what was actually offered, and report back on each one at the next meeting even when the answer is a delay.
10
Next Meeting
Give the date, time, attendees and focus, and how absent relatives will join.
More guidance
Give the date, time, who will attend and the main focus. If an absent relative needs to join, say how (phone or video) and who will arrange it. Give the family a copy of this record in the language they read best, before they leave or soon after.
Family meeting template for rehabilitation, with sample entries: filled sample
Fictional entries, initials only, showing the level of detail to aim for. Impression and summary sections are left for the treating clinician.
Who Attended
Patient: Mr R. (in person). Wife: Mrs R. (in person). Son: Mr V. (video call from Bengaluru). Key worker: Ms A., OT. PT: Mr D. Held in Tamil; key worker interpreted for PT.
Purpose of the Meeting
First goal-setting meeting after admission, to agree what Mr R. and his family most want from the six-week programme.
Update from the Team
Team explained that Mr R. now stands from the bed with one person steadying him and walks short distances with a stick and close supervision. Showed a short video of his walking from Monday's session.
Questions and Concerns from the Family
Q (son): Can Appa be left alone in the afternoons? A: Not yet; the team will look at this again once night-time walking is safer. Follow-up: OT to discuss with family on 26 March.
Goals Agreed in the Family's Words
Family's words: “He should get to the toilet at night without waking everyone.” Team wording: walk from bed to bathroom at night with walker and wife standing by, 3 nights in a row. Working on it: PT, OT, nursing. Review: 26 March.
Decisions
Weekend home leave on 30 March agreed. Moving his bed to the ground floor deferred until the son speaks to his brother; son to confirm by 24 March.
Discharge and Home Planning
Plan to return to the family flat (first floor, no lift). Wife will be main carer, with son helping at weekends. Family considering a day attendant from April.
What the Family Will Do
Send photos of the bathroom and stairs to the key worker | Son | 20 March.
What the Team Will Do
Arrange carer training for wife on Tuesday and Friday mornings | Ms A. (OT) | from 24 March.
Family meeting record vs progress report
Family meeting record
Progress report
Purpose
Records a conversation and what was agreed
Summarises progress over a period
Voices
Patient, family and team together
Mainly the team
Goals
In the family's words first, team wording beside
Measurable team goals
When
Goal setting, reviews, discharge planning
At fixed review points
Afterwards
Read back and copied to the family
Reviewed, then shared with family and referrer
Tips and mistakes to avoid
Do
Ask the family beforehand who they want there; a video call can bring in a relative elsewhere.
Keep the team side small: two or three staff, led by the key worker.
Start by asking what the family has noticed and what worries them, before the team update.
Read goals and decisions back in the meeting language, and invite corrections.
Where a clinic uses healhab's Family Portal, family members it has granted access can see a published copy of this record.
Avoid
Recording only the team's wording, so the family later does not recognise the goals.
Writing answers more confidently than they were given in the meeting.
Leaving unanswered questions without a named person to follow them up.
Sending the record only to the relative with a smartphone, bypassing the main carer.
About this progress report
A rehabilitation family meeting record documents a meeting between the patient, their family and the rehab team: who attended, the team's update, the family's questions and the answers given, goals agreed in the family's own words, decisions, who does what next, and the next meeting date. This free template is designed to be read back and shared with the family.
The first goal-setting meeting after admission assessment
A review when progress slows or the family is worried
Discharge planning, to agree home arrangements and training
When family members disagree and need a shared record
Read more
Family meetings shape rehab more than any single session. Goals get set, worries about money or care at home come out, and discharge plans are agreed, yet everyone remembers the meeting a little differently.
This record is built for the family to check. Goals appear in their words first, and questions are logged with the answer actually given. In joint families it also names relatives whose agreement is still needed.
Questions
What is a family meeting in rehabilitation?+
It is a planned meeting between the patient, their family and the rehab team to set goals, review progress or plan discharge. The written record captures who attended, questions and answers, agreed goals, decisions and next steps.
Who should attend a rehab family meeting?+
The patient wherever possible, the main carer, relatives involved in decisions, the key worker and one or two other team members. Ask the family who they want there; in some families the person who decides is not the one who visits.
How do you write goals in the family's words?+
Write down exactly what the patient or relative said, in quotation marks, translated if needed. Put the team's measurable version beside it. Read both aloud so the family can confirm the team understood them.
What if family members disagree?+
Record each view and who holds it, then what was agreed. If no agreement was reached, say so and record the next step, such as another meeting that includes the relative who makes household decisions.
Should the patient attend the family meeting?+
Wherever possible. If tiredness or communication makes a long meeting hard, the patient can join for the goal discussion, or the team can meet them beforehand and bring their views. Record which approach was used.
Is this the same as a goal-setting meeting record?+
It covers goal-setting meetings and later family meetings. The interdisciplinary goal plan holds the team's formal goals; this record captures the conversation that shaped them.
Is there a filled sample of a family meeting record?+
Yes. Each section guide on this page shows a fictional sample entry, using initials only. Statements about expected recovery are recorded only as the responsible clinician gave them, so write those from your own meeting.
