Reflecting the World Report on Disability: a report from Sweden.

Abstract

There is a range of statistics in Sweden regarding people with functional limitations available from different authorities presenting diverging information. Although healthcare and social welfare legislations aim for equal access and treatment, surveys about unmet needs show that opportunities for rehabilitation are unequal among diagnoses and around the country and insufficient in the long-term. There is also a law granting certain supports and services to those people who are considered to be in need of having someone to speak for them. Disability-related services are tax financed with a symbolic fee. Rehabilitation is performed by not only physical and rehabilitation medicine specialists. Rehabilitation research is mainly within healthcare science but also in social science. Disability services need better coordination, and an agency has recently been founded with this responsibility. More politicians should engage in disability-related issues, and more people with disability should get into politics.