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ICF-Based Tools in Rehabilitation Toward Return to Work: Facilitating Inter-professional Communication and Comprehensive Documentation

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Handbook of Vocational Rehabilitation and Disability Evaluation

Part of the book series: Handbooks in Health, Work, and Disability ((SHHDW))

Abstract

An important goal of rehabilitation with regard to community integration is return-to-work, and vocational rehabilitation plays a key role in return-to-work efforts as well as encouraging employment retention. For vocational rehabilitation to be successful, a comprehensive, client-oriented, and inter-professional rehabilitation management approach is essential. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), specifically ICF-based documentation tools that correspond to the “Rehab-Cycle” model, can guide the inter-professional rehabilitation management process by providing the rehabilitation team tools for structuring and coordinating their tasks from the identification of the problem to the planning of rehabilitation services, thereby promoting inter-professional communication and facilitating comprehensive client-oriented documentation. This chapter outlines the ICF-based documentation tools – ICF Assessment Sheet, ICF Categorical Profile, ICF Intervention Table, and the ICF Evaluation Display – and illustrates the use of these tools in a case example of Martin, a 26-year-old male with paraplegia, who participated in vocational rehabilitation program.

This chapter is an extended adaptation of the publication Glässel A, Rauch A, Selb M, Emmenegger K, Lückenkemper M, and Escorpizo R. A case study on the application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF)-based tools for vocational rehabilitation in spinal cord injury. Work. 2012; 41(4): 465–474 with permission from IOS Press.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the client and the rehabilitation team at Swiss Paraplegic Center in Nottwil, Switzerland, as well as coauthors of the original publication, Alexandra Rauch, Karl Emmenegger, and Miriam Lückenkemper for their invaluable support.

Ethical Approval

The case study was approved by the Cantonal Ethics Commission of Lucerne, Switzerland, with project number 628/30 October 2006 and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Study Questions

  1. 1.

    What are ICF Core Sets?

    • Answer: ICF Core Sets are short lists of ICF categories that are considered relevant for describing individuals with a given health condition or within a health-related context or setting.

  2. 2.

    What are the key elements of the Rehab-Cycle and their corresponding ICF-based documentation tools?

    • Answer: The key elements of the Rehab-Cycle are assessment, assignment, intervention and evaluation. While the ICF Assessment Sheet and the ICF Categorical Profile can facilitate the assessment phase, the ICF Intervention Table can be used in the assignment and intervention phase, and the ICF Evaluation Display in the evaluation phase.

  3. 3.

    What is the purpose of the ICF Assessment Sheet, ICF Categorical Profile, ICF Intervention Table and ICF Evaluation Display?

    • Answer:

      • The ICF Assessment Sheet provides an overview of the client’s functioning state with input from both the client and the rehabilitation professional.

      • The ICF Categorical Profile facilitates the identification of intervention targets by defining long and short-term goals and outlining the client’s functioning status in selected ICF categories.

      • The ICF Intervention Table supports intervention planning by providing a comprehensive overview of all of the interventions targets (as represented by ICF categories), the interventions, and the corresponding rehabilitation professional assigned to address each intervention target.

      • The ICF Evaluation Display indicates whether the shared goals set by the client and rehabilitation team were achieved based on the ICF Categorical Profile and the results of the re-examination of the client’s functioning after intervention.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Paraplegic Research, Guido-Zäch-Strasse 4, 6207, Nottwil, Switzerland

    Melissa Selb, Andrea Glässel & Reuben Escorpizo

  2. ICF Research Branch, WHO CC FIC in Germany (DIMDI), Nottwil, Switzerland

    Melissa Selb, Andrea Glässel & Reuben Escorpizo

  3. Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Science, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    Reuben Escorpizo

Authors
  1. Melissa Selb
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  2. Andrea Glässel
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  3. Reuben Escorpizo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melissa Selb .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA

    Reuben Escorpizo

  2. Research Unit, Directorate for Labour and Welfare, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Sören Brage

  3. Department of Rehabilitation and Counsel, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin, USA

    Debra Homa

  4. Department of Health Sciences and Health Policy, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Luzern, Switzerland

    Gerold Stucki

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Selb, M., Glässel, A., Escorpizo, R. (2015). ICF-Based Tools in Rehabilitation Toward Return to Work: Facilitating Inter-professional Communication and Comprehensive Documentation. In: Escorpizo, R., Brage, S., Homa, D., Stucki, G. (eds) Handbook of Vocational Rehabilitation and Disability Evaluation. Handbooks in Health, Work, and Disability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08825-9_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08825-9_22

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08825-9

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