Advances in Rehabilitation and Health Assessments

Abstract

This chapter considers the types of measures used in rehabilitation and health settings, including their alignment with the major health and disease diagnostic and classification systems. The chapter provides an overview of the needs that are served by rehabilitation and health assessments and highlights the increasing importance of measures that yield data to guide decisions to support functioning across a broad range of life domains. It makes the case for prospective rehabilitation and health assessments that predict more reliably future functioning in preferred activities taking into account personal and environment interactions. Environmental factors include the context for both achieved and aspired participation and for which rehabilitation and health supports are intended. The future of rehabilitation and health assessments is tied to their ability to provide data that translate directly into needed support services for maximal participation by people living with debilitating health conditions.

Self‐determination among adolescents with physical disabilities in Zimbabwean inclusive‐community setting: an exploratory study

“…They indicated that the school curriculum and physical environments are not easy to negotiate, and the school social environments are also posing participation restrictions. Restrictive curriculum is a general‐education curriculum with no support services (Peterson, Mpofu & Oakland, ). This type of curriculum does not address the real learning needs of the learners with disabilities.…”

“…In this case, learners are required to adapt to the curriculum instead of the curriculum to adapt to the learners (Peterson, Mpofu & Oakland, ). A restrictive physical environment as discussed earlier in this study is a natural environment and human‐made changes to environment (Peterson, Mpofu & Oakland, ) that hinders selection of inclusive activities to partake by adolescents with physical disabilities (Loreman et al, ). For successful implementation of inclusion at school level, the curriculum and the physical environments must be least restrictive.…”

“…The aim of an inclusive community is to remove the historical exclusion within the community through enactment or modification of legislation, policies, and community‐management practices in order to promote the reorganisation of the community's systems and community participation of all people regardless of their differences (Rustemier, ). Rehabilitation and health‐care practices for people with disabilities, such as the use of inclusive practices, are continually evolving, and those that focus on the use of community efforts in promotion of the rights of people with physical disabilities are likely to be preferred over time (Mpofu & Oakland, ). Social factors that focus on choices in participating in inclusive‐community activities of the vulnerable communities will continue receiving attention, as will their interface with measures of physical function in every day settings (World Health Organisation, ).…”

Utilizing the ICF to understand depressive symptomology in multiple sclerosis: An exploratory systematic review.

“…For example, studies on MS have utilized generic health and well-being scales (e.g., Short Form Health Survey [SF-36]; Ware & Sherbourne, 1992; Sickness Impact Profile; Bergner, Bobbitt, Carter, & Gilson, 1981), and/or condition-specific instruments (e.g., MS Quality of Life Scale; Vickrey, Hays, Harooni, Myers, & Ellison, 1995) to measure social participation. Furthermore, these measures do not necessarily map across the broader ICF domain of activity and participation (Kwiatkowski et al, 2014; Mpofu et al, 2016).…”