Health-related rehabilitation services: assessing the global supply of and need for human resources

Abstract

BackgroundHuman resources for rehabilitation are often a neglected component of health services strengthening and health workforce development. This may be partly related to weaknesses in the available research and evidence to inform advocacy and programmatic strategies. The objective of this study was to quantitatively describe the global situation in terms of supply of and need for human resources for health-related rehabilitation services, as a basis for strategy development of the workforce in physical and rehabilitation medicine.MethodsData for assessing supply of and need for rehabilitative personnel were extracted and analyzed from statistical databases maintained by the World Health Organization and other national and international health information sources. Standardized classifications were used to enhance cross-national comparability of findings.ResultsLarge differences were found across countries and regions between assessed need for services requiring health workers associated to physical and rehabilitation medicine against estimated supply of health personnel skilled in rehabilitation services. Despite greater need, low- and middle-income countries tended to report less availability of skilled health personnel, although the strength of the supply-need relationship varied across geographical and economic country groupings.ConclusionThe evidence base on human resources for health-related rehabilitation services remains fragmented, the result of limited availability and use of quality, comparable data and information within and across countries. This assessment offered the first global baseline, intended to catalyze further research that can be translated into evidence to support human resources for rehabilitation policy and practice.

Using Concept Mapping to Develop a Human Rights Based Indicator Framework to Assess Country Efforts to Strengthen Rehabilitation Provision and Policy: The Rehabilitation System Diagnosis and Dialogue (RESYST) Framework

“…While many of the results of this project reinforce those from previous studies suggesting indicators to monitor important aspects of rehabilitation services and policy such as admission and discharge barriers to medical rehabilitation [76], multi-level barriers in access to community based rehabilitation [77], patient satisfaction [78,79], rehabilitation workforce density [80] etc., there were several new findings. Human rights indicators capturing the legal and regulatory landscape of rehabilitation services, which ranked highly in both importance and feasibility, were not mentioned in previous studies, except with reference to the ratification of human right treaties [13,81] and the recognition of disabled people's right to health in national constitutions [82].…”

Human resources for health (and rehabilitation): Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges for the century

“…First, in lower income countries, where the vast majority of people with disabilities live [1, 22, 23], rehabilitation providers are unavailable or in very small numbers [1, 24, 25]. Second, existing rehabilitation services and workers concentrate in urban locations and are not accessible to numerous people with disabilities living in rural settings [22, 26, 27].…”

Identifying Rehabilitation Workforce Strengths, Concerns and Needs: A Case Study from the Pacific Islands

“…This template (in questionnaire form) and following Gupta et al (2011) was used to systematically enumerate the number of workers, the employing body, where trained, and type of services provided in each of the nine occupational categories derived from the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Traditional and complementary medicine professionals, traditional, complementary associate professionals and community-based rehabilitation workers were added, based on the findings from the literature review.…”

“…Sourcing accurate data is challenging as many countries do not include rehabilitation personnel in their human resources for health reports (WHO, 2009). Gupta et al (2011) reported the first international mapping, noting the highly uneven distribution of the rehabilitation workforce, with the deepest penetration in high-income countries. There is a clear gap between unmet need for rehabilitation and the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006) for equity in health care (Article 25) and access to rehabilitation and habilitation (Article 26).…”