rehabilitation, medical and vocational
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What is rehabilitation?
Medical and vocational rehabilitation employs medical and vocational methods, helping those with illnesses or handicaps live as full a life as their health allows. The focus is initially on medical aspects, then on physical and occupational therapy, and lastly on vocational and social elements.
Rehabilitation psychologists offer clinical and counseling services to help people deal with chronic, traumatic, or congenital injuries or illnesses. They address neurocognitive status, mood, self-esteem, and quality of life. They also consider cultural influences, environmental barriers, and the attitudes of others toward disability. The goal is to help the patient achieve optimal physical, psychological, and interpersonal functioning.
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How does medical rehabilitation help people recover from injuries or illnesses?
Medical rehabilitation employs diverse medical and vocational techniques, helping individuals with illnesses or injuries regain abilities and lead fulfilling lives. Initially, the focus is on providing appropriate medical or surgical treatment. Subsequently, physical and occupational therapy become central, addressing both physical and vocational aspects.
Treatment approaches are tailored to the patient's disability, personality, and overall condition, often incorporating group activities. Exercise, physical and occupational therapy, and rest periods constitute daily programs. Rehabilitation centers offer essential aids like hearing devices, prostheses, and wheelchairs, while also teaching patients to manage daily needs and adjust to their environments through clothing and home modifications. Ultimately, the goal is to facilitate a return to work or explore alternative, fulfilling activities.
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What are some common types of medical rehabilitation?
Medical rehabilitation employs diverse techniques to help individuals regain abilities and improve their quality of life.
Common types include:
* Physical therapy Uses exercise to improve muscle strength and functioning.
* Occupational therapy Focuses on self-care, work, and play activities to promote health and increase independent function.
* Speech therapy Corrects speech defects, which may originate in the brain, ear, or vocal tract, and can affect articulation or language development.
* Psychological counseling Helps patients cope with discouragement or depression caused by physical disability.
* Functional training Teaches impaired individuals how to perform daily activities safely and effectively.5 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What is vocational rehabilitation?
Medical and vocational rehabilitation employs medical and vocational methods, helping those with illnesses or disabilities live as full a life as their health allows. It emphasizes medical aspects first, then physical and occupational therapy, and finally social and vocational elements.
Vocational rehabilitation once focused on specialized job training and placement, but now many countries have government organizations overseeing these programs. Community-based approaches now integrate education, training, and advocacy, viewing disabled individuals as citizens. Supported-employment programs help people with disabilities find jobs in typical work environments for competitive pay, promoting integration and higher quality of life.
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How does vocational rehabilitation support people returning to work?
Vocational rehabilitation helps people return to work through medical and vocational techniques, enabling them to live fulfilling lives with their abilities and health. The process involves ensuring appropriate medical treatment, physical and occupational therapy, and addressing vocational and social aspects.
During rehabilitation, a decision is made whether the patient can return to work, and if not, alternative options like working from home are explored. Vocational rehabilitation emphasizes self-help and productive work to maintain self-respect and provide a creative outlet. Integrative community-based approaches, such as supported employment, promote job opportunities in traditional work environments. Job specialists offer training and support, working to remove barriers and advocate for individuals, fostering a more integrated life.
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Who might be part of a rehabilitation team, and what roles do they play?
A rehabilitation team is composed of various professionals who work together to help individuals with disabilities or illnesses improve their quality of life. The team is headed by a physiatrist, who coordinates the team's efforts and assesses the areas of functioning in which the patient can improve.
Other members of the team may include:
* Rehabilitation nurse Keeps track of the patient’s physical condition and provides basic medical care.
* Physical therapist Uses exercise to improve the patient’s muscle strength and functioning.
* Occupational therapist Helps the patient adjust to life outside of the rehabilitation institute. Occupational therapists work with individuals of all ages to maintain health, prevent disability, and improve participation in occupations after illness, accident, or disability.
* Psychological counselor Helps the patient cope with discouragement or depression produced by their physical disability.
* Rehabilitation engineer Provides special mechanical aids or devices to assist functioning.
* Respiratory or speech therapists Assist the patient with breathing or speaking difficulties. Speech therapy aims to correct defects in speaking through diagnosis of underlying physical, physiological, or emotional dysfunction. It may involve training in breathing, voice, and speaking habits.
* Social worker Helps the patient adjust to life outside of the rehabilitation institute. Social casework may contribute to diagnosis and the course of treatment.8 Britannica Sources- speech disorder: Treatment and rehabilitation
- social service: Welfare of the mentally ill
- rehabilitation, medical and vocational
- speech therapy
- rehabilitation psychology: Clinical and counseling services
- physical medicine and rehabilitation
- occupational therapy: Modern occupational therapy
- community-based rehabilitation: Practice of community-based rehabilitation
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rehabilitation, medical and vocational, use of medical and vocational techniques to enable a sick or handicapped person to live as full a life as his or her remaining abilities and degree of health will allow. The emphasis is first on the medical aspects, later on physical therapy and occupational therapy, and finally on the vocational and social aspects.
The first step in rehabilitation is to ensure that the patient is receiving adequate and appropriate medical or surgical treatment. It is important for the attendants to know whether the patient’s disease is (1) permanent, but nonprogressive and nonfatal; (2) fluctuating, but not immediately endangering life; or (3) steadily progressive, and, if so, the likely speed of progression, as this will affect the goal of rehabilitation.
Details of treatment depend on the nature of each patient’s disability and personality, physical condition, background, and likely future life; but group treatment may be given as well. The daily programs are made up of periods of exercises, physical and occupational therapy oriented to realistic occupations, and rest. The rehabilitation of heart and lung cases, for example, involves carefully graduated exercise, checked periodically by exercise tolerance tests. Each day the patient is encouraged to attempt more than on the previous day. Few achieve such uninterrupted progress. Often an inexorable “upper limit” becomes apparent; the patient may then go home, having learned by experience the extent of his or her limitations but confident that he or she can live within them. Rehabilitation centres also prescribe, fit, and (in some countries) supply aids such as hearing devices, prostheses, and wheelchairs.
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The patient must be taught to cope single-handedly with daily needs, and a great deal can be done to aid the adjustment from his or her old environment. For example, the modification of clothing, such as the substitution of zippers for buttons and elastic-sided or Velcro shoes for lace-ups, and the modification of living environment, such as the addition of railings fixed to walls and mounted near toilets and in showers, allow many patients to carry out routine tasks on their own.
During the patient’s rehabilitation, it must be decided whether he or she will be able to return to work. If this is impossible, the patient may consider a job that involves working from home or may take up some remunerative hobby pursued at home. The emphasis throughout is on self-help and on productive work—not entirely from financial considerations but because self-help maintains self-respect and affords an outlet for the creative drive, while productive work is more pleasurable for most people than enforced idleness.
In its early years vocational rehabilitation consisted largely of attempts to work around the disability by specialized job training and by helping the patient find work, with little emphasis on medical services. In the 1960s some public and private industries set up special workshops for their own convalescent and injured employees, often in conjunction with the local hospital service; and sheltered working conditions were provided for infectious tuberculosis patients or those with mental or physical difficulties. More recently, many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, and Japan, have government organizations that oversee vocational rehabilitation programs.