Rehabilitation the Health Strategy of the 21st Century, Really?

Abstract

Rehabilitation is the care needed when a person is experiencing or is likely to experience limitations in everyday functioning due to aging or a health condition, including chronic diseases or disorders, injuries, or traumas. The changing health and demographic trends are contributing to rapid increases globally in numbers of people experiencing declines in functioning. Hence, rehabilitation needs that are already very high will further increase in the years to come. The question is: Is the field of rehabilitation with all its stakeholders ready to address that challenge? I argue that to move things forward and make sure that rehabilitation becomes a political priority under a unified message, rehabilitation stakeholders need to bring together the distinct portraits of rehabilitation under the concept of functioning. Also, the field of rehabilitation is still very fragmented and there is a need of a more unified advocacy by rehabilitation professional groups, by subspecialties and users. Responses to the paper are very welcome before, during, and after the second global Rehabilitation 2030 meeting on July 8 and 9, 2019.