Man and medicine Concept of …
Q. Rehabilitation.
medical, social, educational and vocational measures for training and
retraining the individual to the highest possible level of functional
ability".
It includes all measures aimed at reducing the impact of disabling and
handicapping conditions and at enabling the disabled and handicapped
to achieve social integration.
Social integration has been defined as the active participation of
disabled and handicapped people in the mainstream of community life.
It involves Rehabilitation medicine or Physical medicine or Physiatry as
a medical speciality. It aims to enhance and restore functional ability
and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities.
The following areas of concern in rehabilitation have been identified:
(a) Medical rehabilitation -restoration of function.
(b) Vocational rehabilitation -restoration of the capacity to earn a
livelihood. 30
(c) Social rehabilitation -restoration of family and social relationships.
(d) Psychological rehabilitation -restoration of personal dignity and
30
confidence.
Examples of rehabilitation are: establishing schools for the blind,
provision of aids for the crippled, reconstructive surgery in leprosy,
muscle re-education and graded exercises in neurological disorders,
change of profession for a more suitable one and modification of life in
general in the case of tuberculosis, cardiac patients and others.