Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is a health service for people who experience a decline in their functioning due to an illness, injury, surgery, disability or age. Its primary goal is to help regain, maintain or improve functioning so the person can lead an independent and fulfilling live.

Children, adolescents, adults or older people may need rehabilitation at some point in their lives. This includes people with acute or chronic health conditions (such as stroke, heart disease, respiratory diseases, cancer), injuries (such as fractures, burns, brain injuries) or congenital disorders (such as autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy).

Rehabilitation services may benefit people with many health conditions. Drug and alcohol rehabilitation is only one type of rehabilitation that is aimed at helping people overcome addiction to substances.

Learn more: WHO Alcohol, Drugs and Addictive Behaviours unit.

Globally, 1 in 3 people are currently living with a health condition that may benefit from rehabilitation. This need is growing as the population ages with more chronic diseases.

Over 50% of people in some low- and middle-income countries lack access to needed rehabilitation services. Emergencies like conflicts and disasters increase demand while disrupting services, worsening the unmet need for rehabilitation worldwide.

There are many different conditions that can benefit from rehabilitation such us:

• musculoskeletal conditions
• neurological conditions
• cardiopulmonary conditions
• vision impairment and hearing loss
• neurodevelopmental disorders
• mental health conditions
• cancers.

Some examples of rehabilitation include:

• speech and language training to improve a person’s communication after a brain injury;
• physical exercise training to improve muscle strength, voluntary movements and balance in people with stroke or Parkinson disease;
• modifying an older person’s home environment to improve their safety and independence at home and to reduce their risk of falls;
• educating a person with heart disease on how to exercise safely;
• preparing a person with an amputation to be able to use a prosthetic device; making, fitting and refitting the prosthesis;
• positioning and splinting techniques to assist with skin healing, techniques and exercises to reduce swelling, and to regain movement after burn injury;
• prescribing medicine to reduce spasticity for a child with cerebral palsy;
• psychological therapies for a person with emotional distress following a spinal cord injury;
• social skills training for persons with schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders or disorders of intellectual disability;
• training a person with vision loss in the use of a white cane; and
• working with a patient in intensive care to improve their breathing, prevent complications and speed their recovery after critical illness.

Your rehabilitation programme will depend on your specific situation. As a general rule, a rehabilitation professional will assess your level of functioning and potential underlaying causes for your problems in functioning. Based on this assessment, the rehabilitation professional will define the goals of your rehabilitation programme together with you. Next, the type of intervention, intensity and duration that best adapt to your situation will be designed. You may need exercises or training, assistive products, modifications to your environment, education and advice, or use of certain medicines. Throughout the process the rehabilitation professional would evaluate whether your goals are being achieved.

There is no one single setting for a rehabilitation service. However, rehabilitation professionals should be in a range of available health and non-health settings. This includes in hospitals, in specialist rehabilitation centres, in health clinics and posts, in schools and at people’s homes.

Depending on the rehabilitation need, one or more health professionals may collaborate to provide comprehensive care.

The most common rehabilitation professionals include physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, audiologists, orthotists and prosthetists, clinical psychologists, physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors, and rehabilitation nurses. However, many more exist, and the professionals can vary between countries.

As for any health service, safety considerations are needed. The rehabilitation professional will make sure that the type and intensity of the selected interventions do no harm but are save.

Usually, a rehabilitation programme comprises a series of sessions, but the number of sessions will depend on your needs. In the ideal situation, you will regain full functioning but often, depending on the severity of your health condition, the level of functioning will be optimized so that you will be able to return to your meaningful activities with e.g. the use of assistive products in a modified environment.