Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grants - Institute/Initiative Community Support

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects about 3 million Canadians. As the disease progresses, many people lose strength and fine motor control in their hands. This makes it harder for people living with CKD to do everyday tasks like opening jars, buttoning clothes, managing medications, and, for those on home dialysis, operating their own treatment equipment. Despite how common these problems are, hand function is rarely checked in kidney care, and no rehabilitation programs exist to help. This situation is especially serious in rural and remote communities like Northern British Columbia, where people may travel hours for specialized care and have very limited access to rehabilitation services. Many patients in these communities rely on home-based dialysis, which requires good hand control for its success. Our team is currently running a study to measure hand strength and dexterity in adults with CKD in Northern BC and this proposal is essential for the next step: working directly with patients and health care providers to design a rehabilitation program that fits real life needs. We will hold structured sessions with adults living with CKD to learn which daily activities matter most to them and what aspects of a rehabilitation program they would find helpful, safe, and practical. We will then bring together kidney doctors, nurses, therapists, and health system partners from across the Northern BC region for a full-day workshop, when we plan to discuss possible strategies to address such challenges and together, review patients' priorities and identify what is needed to deliver an effective rehabilitation program in rural settings. The results will be combined into two main documents: a detailed plan for a future home-based hand rehabilitation program, shaped by patient input, and a plain-language summary for patients, clinicians, and decision-makers. These products will form the foundation for a future clinical trial to test the program across multiple sites.