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Add to Preferred SourcesThe evolution of rehabilitation in health and development is a case study in re-thinking policies, and the international cooperation necessary to implement reforms.
The Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) targets compel efforts to get the right healthcare to people at an affordable price. For more people than ever, the right healthcare includes rehabilitation. Broadly defined, rehabilitation is about gaining or recovering optimum function and self-sufficiency, which can be a cost effective and cost-saving measure in an aging population with a growing burden of non-communicable diseases.
Long-t
erm needs associated with infectious disease are often ignored, too – and illustrate the neglect of rehabilitation. Recent disease outbreaks like Ebola and Zika will leave a legacy of long-term, complex health needs. Rehabilitation centres in Brazil are overflowing, and turning away children affected by Zika. With better treatment for HIV, more people survive, but live with musculoskeletal and neurological disorders.
More people are affected by, but surviving, large-scale disasters like earthquakes, floods and conflict. People are living longer, but with ongoing health issues that make it harder to socialise, be active and independent. Psychosocial disability and mental ill-health account for more morbidity than any other family of health conditions, but holistic, multidisciplinary health services for people with those conditions are rarely prioritised.
This mix of conditions requires re-evaluating the position of rehabilitation in health and social services, and is an opportunity for intervention across multiple sectors to address challenges at the nexus of ageing, non-communicable diseases, mental health, and disability.
That’s why in early February this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a Call for Action on rehabilitation, describing the current unmet need as ‘profound’.
Source: DEVPOLICY. Read full information here.
2 May, 2017